Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Elegy (click image to enlarge), starring Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson and Dennis Hopper. Sweet cast, huh? Based on the novel The Dying Animal by Philip Roth, and directed by Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me), Elegy follows a cultural critic (Kingsley) who views his life as being in a state of "emancipated manhood" until, one day, a well-mannered student (Cruz) waltzes in and awakens a sense of sexual possessiveness in her teacher, the critic. In other words, her touch is toxic ... to him, at least. Seems rather exotic, and with two dynamos like Kingsley and Cruz in the lead, here's hoping Elegy awakens the sexual possessiveness in all of us. Wait ... that would be a bad thing, right? Okay, keep the sex and remove the possessiveness. There ya go -- I'm seeing it. Check out the trailer over on Moviefone.

Elegy hits theaters in limited release on August 8.

I've said before that a new film from Woody Allen is something like getting a Christmas gift from your eccentric aunt; you never know if you'll get a crocheted toilet paper cozy, or a piece of priceless heirloom jewelry. Fortunately, Allen's newest film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, turns out to be more like the latter. The story opens with Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), two best friends heading to Barcelona for eight weeks of fun.

Vicky's distant relations Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and Mark (Kevin Dunn) live in Barcelona, and have invited the girls to spend the summer there, where Vicky will do research for her Masters and Cristina will soak up the local culture. Vicky is engaged to be married to Doug (Chris Messina), a stalwart, likable, but rather boring young man, and Cristina is recovering from her latest breakup and looking for an artistic outlet for her pent-up creativity.

One of my favorite films from Sundance, Phoebe in Wonderland, is set to open the 10th RiverRun International Film Festival, according to indieWIRE. The film, which stars Elle Fanning, Felecity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Pullman, is about Phoebe (Fanning), a little girl struggling with behavioral problems and relating to others.

Phoebe finds hope through her eccentric drama teacher (Clarkson), who casts her as the lead in the school's production of Alice in Wonderland. Meanwhile her parents (Huffman and Pullman) struggle with balancing their work with their family life, and with accepting that raising their daughters to be creative and non-conformist also means accepting Phoebe as she is, and helping her navigate her way through the world.

The nice folks from Sony Picture Classics have just sent us the new trailer for Married Life, starring Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Pierce Brosnan and Rachel McAdams. You can watch the trailer above, and here's a taste of the plot from the film's synopsis: "After decades of marital contentment, Harry (Chris Cooper) concludes that he must kill his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) because he loves her too much to let her suffer when he leaves her. Harry has fallen hard for the young and lovely Kay (Rachel McAdams), but his best friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) wants to win Kay for himself."

I'm a pretty big Chris Cooper fan, and if you haven't yet seem him in Breach, do yourself a favor and check it out (the flick is currently on cable) -- I watched it for a second time last night and he's so friggin' good. Not for nothing, but the entire cast of Married Life is full of exceptional actors (though I'm still a little iffy on McAdams), so I'm sure we'll get something meaty. The film played both the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, and it's due to arrive in theaters (in limited release) on March 7. Let us know what you think.

If you're a big fan of Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, then I have some potentially good news: the actors' latest film consists of little more than the two of them ... sitting in a bar ... talking ... for about 80 minutes. And since these are a pair of exceedingly fine actors, the experience of Blind Date is not what you'd call unpleasant -- but it sure isn't all that exciting.

Based on the 1996 Theo Van Gogh film of the same name, Blind Date is about an estranged married couple who, despite clearly loving one another, have all sorts of painful problems to work through. To that end, the couple stage a series of "blind dates" at the husband's seedy lounge -- most of which don't go off all that well. Toss in a clueless bartender who pops up every once in a while, and that's the long and short of Blind Date -- two great actors trying to breathe some life into a premise that begins as simplistically "symbolic," and gets progressively less subtle as the film moves forward.

When I saw Ira Sachs' Married Life at the New York Film Festival last fall, I had a lot of problems with it. But one thing I didn't have any complaints about is how gorgeous Rachel McAdams looks in the film. And now, thanks to Rope of Silicon, you can see for yourself how amazing the actress looks as a '40s-era blonde beauty. My favorite photo is the third, in which McAdams almost looks like a dead-ringer for Kim Novak in Vertigo. But I'd be fine with looking at any of them. In fact, I'm not just a fan of the way McAdams looks in the film; I also love the three-piece style of Chris Cooper, the open-collared playboy thing that Pierce Brosnan has going on and the partially see-through top that Patricia Clarkson wears in the second-to-last pic. (Clarkson is so stunning in the film, she actually gives McAdams a run for her money, and makes it hard to believe Cooper would cheat on her with anyone.) But aside from simply looking terrific, all four of the stars of Married Life give wonderful performances, as usual.

The film, which opens in limited release March 7, is based on John Bingham's 1953 pulp novel Five Roundabouts to Heaven. Cooper and Clarkson play a married couple, and Cooper's character has a mistress (McAdams). He makes the mistake, though, of introducing the girl to his best friend, played by Brosnan. Not knowing that his mistress is having another affair with his best friend, Cooper's character decides to murder his wife, because it's a more humane thing to do than break her heart. It's a very Hitchcockian plot, which makes sense since Bingham's books were adapted into episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. And it's a good enough movie to recommend, especially because of those great-looking actors. I just wish that Sony Classics would do away with Brosnan's awful and unnecessary voice-over before releasing the movie into theaters.

I sure would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver pitched her script for Lars and the Real Girl: "See, it's about this guy who falls in love with a sex doll -- only he doesn't use the doll for sex, see? He's delusional, and he really thinks she's a real person, get it? Oh, but it's not a comedy, it's really kind of melancholy and depressing." Not the sexiest pitch in the world to have to sell, is it? And yet, the concept works -- and works very well -- if you're able to suspend a fair amount of disbelief.

The best thing about the film, nor surprisingly, is Ryan Gosling, who's proven to have quite a remarkable range as an actor. In last year's Half Nelson, Gosling made a crack-addicted middle-school teacher sympathetic; as Lars, he takes on the challenge of creating an emotionally disconnected and delusional character that the audience can connect with. It's a difficult trick to pull off; the character of Lars is so completely out of touch emotionally and socially from everyone around him, that the hardest bit to suspend disbelief around is that any of the people in the small town in which he lives would actually go to the lengths they do in order to help him. But maybe I'm just jaded from eight years of living in Seattle, where people tend to refer to the interpersonal dynamic as "Seattle-friendly" (translation: friendly enough on the surface, but the emotional walls don't come down too easily).

The initial footage for Lars and the Real Girl, which came out last month, presented a quirky, jaw-dropping world where Ryan Gosling gets a Real Doll to cure his loneliness. It looked to be a strange, black, indie comedy -- lots of laughs and possible lasciviousness. But that just skims the surface of this film, and to call it a comedy is to ignore the profound depth of Craig Gillespie's feature. While the title insinuates that it's a wacky comedy, it's actually a smart, well-crafted, and heart-wrenching film that smoothly discusses the intricacies of loss and depression. It has many humorous moments, but they serve to relieve tension, not drive the story.

Lars is a young man who spent much of his life alone with his widower father. When his dad finally passed on, his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), moved home with his wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer). With his brother back and his father gone, Lars retreated not only to the garage, but further into himself. Karin, however, is determined to break Lars out of his shell and get him involved in the family. It is obvious that he cares about them, but at the same time, he uses any excuse possible to avoid Karin's invitations.

I had always really liked Felicity Huffman, one half of Hollywood power couple Filliam H. Muffman, as an actress. And then I saw her screeching, ridiculous work in the screeching, ridiculous movie Georgia Rule. I'm usually pretty forgiving for such cases of bad judgment -- but I just can't let this one slide. I'm going to need a couple great performances from Huffman to scrub miserable scenes like her roadside freakout in Rule from my mind. Hopefully she'll redeem herself in Phoebe in Wonderland, a comedy from first-time director Daniel Barnz (incorrectly listed as Ben in the Variety article announcing the film), who also wrote the screenplay. Huffman will join Patricia Clarkson, Bill "Not Paxton, dammit, it's Pullman!" Pullman, and Elle "Not Dakota, dammit, it's Elle!" Fanning for the movie.

Fanning will play "a rebellious little girl who clashes with the rule-obsessed authority figures in her life. She seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher," played by Clarkson. The announcement doesn't give further details, but if I had to guess, I'd wager Huffman and Pullman play Fanning's strict parents, and that her teacher helps her use her imagination to expand her horizons? Barnz, who apparently loves movies with the word "land" in the title, also wrote Sugarland, an upcoming lawyer drama about exploited migrant workers with Robert DeNiro and Jodie Foster. Foster will also direct that one. And let me just use this space here at the end of the article to beg you not to see Georgia Rule. Unless you're a fan of child molestation humor, there's better ways to spend your hard-earned cash. For shame, Huffman!

According to a recent report in Variety, the Lakeshore Entertainment adaptation of Philip Roth's 2001 novella Dying Animal has added Peter Sarsgaard (whose latest film Year of the Dog opens this week), Dennis Hopper and former Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry to its cast. These three will be joining the previously cast Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson. In the film, Cruz will play a graduate student who has an affair with a much older professor played by Kingsley. Cruz's character returns years later with a revelation. According to Wikipedia, the novella Dying Animal marked the third appearance of Kingsley's character, Professor David Kepesh, who had previously appeared in The Breast and The Professor of Desire. No word on how these three new additions to the cast will fit into the story.

The film is being directed by Isabel Coixet, adapted by Nicholas Meyer (perhaps best known for his involvement in the Star Trek film franchise) and produced by Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi. Lakeshore International will distribute the film overseas, selling territories at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. The company is also currently in production on Pathology (the story of two medical students trying to commit the perfect murder), the Clive Barker adaptation Midnight Meat Train and the serial killer film Untraceable. Since the Variety article refers to the film as untitled, I can envision a meeting in which someone said, "Dying Animal? Who's going to pay to see a movie about road kill?" Whatever it ends up being called, it starts shooting next month in Vancouver.