James Gray’s “Two Lovers” has gained notoriety as the purportedly last film to star Joaquin Phoenix, who as we all know is absolutely for sure giving up his acting career in order to concentrate on facial hair, hip-hop stardom, and bizarre talk show appearances. Really. He’s serious. Anyhow, even if the unthinkable happens and Joaquin signs up for “Gladiator 2: Christians’ Revenge,” it’s still a good thing that this modest romantic drama has garnered the extra attention. “Two Lovers” is the sort of film that could easily slip through the cracks, as have some of Gray’s previous movies (“Little Odessa,” “The Yards”).
As the title implies, this is your typical love triangle scenario. Leonard (Phoenix) is living with his Jewish parents in Brooklyn following a hospitalization brought on by the breakup with his fiancé. Almost simultaneously, he meets two women. There’s Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of Leonard’s father’s business partner, and the safe, familiar choice. And then there’s Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who’s everything Sandra’s not—blonde, a shiksa, and just a little bit crazy.
Leonard is torn between them, and yes, he does end up feelin’ like a fool. Michelle has another lover of her own, an older, rich lawyer (Elias Koteas) who refuses to leave his wife and family. She’s also, as mentioned, somewhat unhinged, which endears her to the equally damaged Leonard. But while he’s awkwardly introspective and occasionally suicidal, she’s volatile, narcissistic, and demanding. She also thinks of him as more of a brother, and even says so, apparently unaware that that’s the worst possible thing a woman can say to a man who has just professed his love. A match made in heaven, no?
Phoenix, despite his off-screen Andy Kaufman-esque antics, is a heck of an actor when he wants to be, and he gives a perfectly pitched performance here as someone on the verge of mental illness but still functional on a day-to-day basis. He avoids the all-too-common pitfall of letting the illness define and dominate the character. There’s a scene where Leonard is waiting in a fancy restaurant for Michelle, trying to drink his Brandy Alexander through the stir stick, that’s a masterpiece of fish-out-of-water anxiety—familiar, funny, and sad. He also, during a rare light-hearted scene out on the town, shows off the rapping chops and breakdance moves which have become a siren song to the actor.
Paltrow, on the other hand, has a tendency when playing ‘ordinary folks,’ to condescend in her performance, and that shows a bit here. Michelle lives in the same building as Leonard, with her unseen but apparently disturbed father. It’s odd that the film never returns to this father after his first mention, except to provide a rationale for Michelle and Leonard to meet clandestinely on the building’s roof for, among, other things, a quickie against a rough brick wall. (“That was beautiful” Michelle says afterward, more proof that she’s a bit off.)
For this intimate drama set largely in cramped indoor spaces, Gray uses a widescreen ratio, cutting the horizontal frame up with vertical lines from doorways, walls, and rooftop chimneys. It’s a classic but effective way of demonstrating the potential freedom available to the characters, as well as their (often self-imposed) confinement.
A couple more random notes: The DVD has a trailer for “Surveillance,” the long-awaited new film from Jennifer Lynch, who last graced the big screen with “Boxing Helena” in 1993, a film I’m perversely proud of having seen during its first screening on opening day (I was bored and I didn’t know Art Garfunkel was in it…). Now 16 years later, this “Rashomon”-style thriller looks creepy and intriguing, despite a middling cast (Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond). Also, I used the Shazam app on my iPhone for the first time while watching “Two Lovers.” It successfully identified the tune playing in the nightclub scene as Moby’s “I Love to Move in Here.” And finally, I forgot to mention above that Isabella Rossellini plays Leonard’s mom, and one should never neglect to mention anything that she does.
2008 release; 110 minutes; viewed on DVD
Grade: B+
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