Owen, Watts star in ‘The International’

Movie: "The International"

When: Opening Friday at local theaters

Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl

Director: Tom Tykwer

The story: An obsessive Interpol agent and an assistant district attorney from Manhattan team up, globe-trotting from New York to Istanbul to blow the whistle on an unscrupulous international bank behind money laundering, arms trading, government destabilization -- and murder.

The buzz: A reunion for "Eastern Promises" co-stars Watts and Mueller-Stahl, this theoretically topical thriller (from "Run Lola Run" director Tykwer), which just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, was scheduled for release last August, then delayed for reshoots. Now it shows up in theaters -- just in time for the worst U.S. banking crisis since the Depression. So much for the movie's theory of omnipotent financial institutions.