If you truly believe Joaquin Phoenix is done acting and not involved in a Casey Affleck filmed, performance art based mockumentary that may as well be titled “Going Full Retard,” then “Two Lovers” plays as a fitting end to a promising career. The third film in what’s become a strange collaboration between Phoenix and director James Gray is nothing like their previous action driven movies – the “The Yards” and “We Own the Night.” Instead, “Two Lovers” is a scaled down, intimate story about finding happiness, devoid of the typical absurd clichés and tired narrative devices that Hollywood mass releases in countless rom-coms this time of year.
Loosely based on Luchino Visconti’s “Le Notti Bianche” (1957 with Marcello Mastroianni ) and transposed to Brighton Beach, Phoenix plays Leonard, a character haunted by a recent failed engagement. He moves back in with his parents (the excellent Isabella Rossellini and Moni Moshonov) in a homey apartment and works at their dry cleaning business. In between suicide attempts and taking depressing photos of the neighborhood, Leonard is introduced to Sandra (a terrific Vinessa Shaw), the ostensibly conventional daughter of a family that wants to buy the dry cleaning place. Overcoming his conspicuous shyness, Leonard builds a relationship with Sandra, much to the joy of their parents. Enter Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a beautiful, free-spirit blonde who moves in to the building and can see Leonard’s room for her window. Leonard and Michelle quickly become close, although matters get more complicated when we learn she’s seeing a married Manhattan lawyer who pays for her apartment. The rest of the film unfolds as a love triangle, with Leonard facing the decision to settle for the safe but unfulfilling choice or pursue the uncertainty of what he thinks is true love with capricious Michelle.
The film succeeds in creating a tension that runs throughout, while avoiding traditional beats that we’ve come to expect in these kinds of stories. In a way, “Two Lovers” feels like the kind of European romance film and or long-forgotten wandering ‘7os film that rarely works in the U.S., driven more by subtlety, depth of performances and real life earnestness. Even in it’s final scene there is an ambiguity that rings true. Everyone is excellent, with Phoenix bringing an eloquent intricacy to his character’s highs and lows and proving to be a thoughtful and capable lead when he’s not rapping with P Diddy or awkwardly confronting Paul Shaffer. At times the script borders on unlikely – how such a glum introvert could juggle two babes simultaneously is beyond us. And the much discussed scene where Joaquin’s character actually freestyle raps is cringe-inducing, but it’s not enough to detract from an otherwise excellent movie that works in many other ways.
“Two Lovers” is in limited run right now, but we absolutely recommend this film for its honest approach to telling a familiar story that too often gets watered down or dramatized in nonsensical mainstream romance movies. [B+]
