Two Lovers

As in a good European film, shots are allowed to breathe. The focus is on character and human emotion. At the same time, the movie shows an American concern for pace and story development. The result is the best of both worlds.

The movie is supremely nonjudgmental and balanced.

Phoenix plays the romantic lead with great intelligence and enormous charm, making his character's conflict utterly believable, and Paltrow positively glows as the radiant shiksa who dazzles him.

In the movies, romantic love conquers all. In reality, it's a little different, and that's what Gray is trying to show.

The characters are all a little too old for this sort of drama, and they know it, but that makes Two Lovers as much about last chances as new loves.

Fine performances -- notably from Phoenix -- still don't make this an easy sell. But it is atmospheric, accomplished and intense.

The only possible interest the movie will inspire in anyone comes when Paltrow flashes a breast toward the end, far too late to pump any excitement into an aggressively boring film that gurgles with self-indulgence.

Avec Two Lovers, James Gray Ãtonne. DÃjà par le fait qu'il s'attaque à une banale histoire d'amour après trois films où règnent la violence (Little Odessa, The Yards, La nuit nous appartient). Et puis, Two Lovers n'est pas un film romantique comme les autres. Il est même bien loin de la surdose de bons sentiments, de chansons et de belles couleurs typiques de Hollywood. En effet, ici, tout semble noir et cruel (magnifiques jeux de lumières qui offrent une certaine ambiance), accentuant ainsi des dÃtails mÃconnus à ce genre (tentative de suicide, fausse couche...). On ressent le mal qu'Ãprouvent les personnages à aimer. D'ailleurs, il faut fÃliciter leur performance à chacun, dÃvoilant leurs Ãmotions avec tant de finesse et de crÃdibilitÃ. Un grand bravo à Joaquin Phoenix, bluffant, et Gwyneth Paltrow, dans un de ses meilleurs rôles. On pourrait regretter que le final s'en arrête là (pas de spoile !). Mais on ne peut rester indiffÃrent face à la puissance qui se dÃgage de Two Lovers.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

James Gray produces an affectionate, but poorly-paced film in 2008's Two Lovers. In one of Joaquin Phoenix's greater career performances, Leonard is a complex, thorough character that many viewers could relate to the unrelenting passion, suffering, and existence of. Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw provide excellent supporting roles, tearing the heart of Phoenix's character in two. Beautiful cinematography and a quality score accompany this picture, though pacing can be slow at times. Coming in at 110 minutes, Two Lovers would've benefited from a bit of a Director's Cut, but remains one of the underrated romantic films of the late 2000s.

hilarious and calculatively ambiguous.. Two Lovers Two Lovers is a character driven romantic drama about a reserved guy who falls in love for two girls and is cornered in a morale conflict that he is definitely not ready for. It is surprisingly flat out hilarious and not forcibly imputed by any whatsoever eerie verbal sparrings but tiny notions that it is brimmed with and mostly relies upon the stunning performances by the cast. The weaving of the structure is smooth and utterly congruent to the tone of the feature where one may not be able to easily filter out the either one. The background score is almost non-existent with decent cinematography and editing where the only thing that stands out on technical aspects is camera work that captures the apt tone and theme of the feature. As it starts aging on screen the web of deceptions and lies grows wide and spirals out which is done with equal passion that may be appropriate but may not be as gripping and appealing to the viewers as the rest of the material does. Phoenix is pure magic on screen, and its purity is reflected on his extraction of the character from the written words and his investment that he implies on each frame of his portrayal, what an actor. His range is from being hilarious and goofy to itensed writhing performance that leaves you in an awe of it and this time he is supported by brilliant Rossellini and Paltrow. The pragmatic conversation that are both hilarious and calculatively ambiguous that keeps the crisp alive, the three dimensional characters around which the bubble revolves around and Phoenix at the heart of it are the high points of the feature. Gray's finesse on execution has always been its gem that it relies upon and as always it pays off. Two Lovers is a convoluted take on simplistic terms and emotions that it fuels itself on.

As much as I liked the acting and the look of this movie, common sense kept me at arms length. The obsessive, love-struck male, as sure as steel and the stars that shine, is as painful to watch on screen as it is to witness in real life. At no point could I get on board with the Leonard's foolish decisions in these modern times - drawing out at length what is obvious doom. That is what derailed this otherwise warm and sincere project.