Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)

I haven't really felt the urge to watch James Gray's earlier films. His interest in people being torn apart by their desire to preserve or corrupt the law just doesn't get me hot under the collar. But for some reason Two Lovers (Dir: James Gray, 2008) lured me in, and I'm so glad it did as I found it a really different, thought provoking, affecting and mature film.

I can be an absolute sucker for a well made chick flick. Priceless with Audrey Tatou is the lightest piece of fluff but I love it all the same. What I don't love about chick flicks is that the depiction of relationships and love are so utterly unrealistic. While we want a bit of escapism, of course, the tendency to gloss over the real life trials and tribulations of finding that one person mean they end up as lightweight fantasy and nothing more.



This is certainly not the problem in Two Lovers. While the central themes are love and relationships the vision is almost unremittingly bleak and for the most part focuses on how they can fuck you up. The film starts with the main character Leonard attempting suicide and then he reconsiders it again later in the film. It tackles loving the wrong person, of whether or not you should open yourself up to love without a consideration for being hurt, how people justify adultery, and the ease rather than the passion of falling in love with a convenient person. It almost feels like a French film the way it takes time over its subject, it is unpeturbed to be examining the minutiae and mundanities that can sometimes be life and love.

But it is undeniably an American film, being set as it is in a Jewish neighbourhood in the far reaches of Brooklyn. But even this sets it apart. While we are so used to seeing New York on the big and small screen to the extent that it is almost a cliche there are still areas of New York that are less familar to a cinema going audience. Brooklyn mostly seems to be depicted as a poor and gritty borough if it is seen on screen at all. But here there is something that is both whimsical, delicately real as we see through Leonard's beautiful and stark black and white photographs, but also representing a trap, an area that people are attached to but also yearn to leave.

Brooklyn is becoming more and more what I think of when I think of New York, with all of my New Yorker friends now living there, and I really can't get enough of seeing it, even though it makes me pine for it and them desperately.


Joaquin Phoenix is startlingly good as Leonard. I have read some reviews that say he is a revelation, but I think he has always had that. Ever since To Die For I have had a real crush on his acting chops. And this is another great, meaty part for him to get them into. Comparing the two characters reveals just how different they are, but he nails them both. What Jimmy and Leonard have in common, though, is a vulnerability and willing to wear their hearts on their sleeve in an almost disturbingly naive way. Even though you can see the mistakes that Leonard makes before he even makes them your heart bleeds for him, and you want him to get what he wants even though you know it will all end in tears.

Which it does. And it doesn't. This is another great thing that makes this film really stand out for me. The ending. Through the second half of the film I was filled with a sense of dread and the final moments stopped me in my tracks to such a degree that even some time after watching the film I don't yet know whether the end is the most glorious end to a film almost ever, or depressing and frustrating and heartbreaking. I think my inability to work it out suggests that it is both. I won't give it away, but if you watch it or have already seen it please share your thoughts.




When it comes to the love interests I found both of the performances outstanding. It is quite rare for a film to have such complicated female roles, but I think I have established that this film is quite unique. Gwyneth Paltrow's character is infinitely more glamourous and screwed up, but she is played believably and you can understand Leonard's draw to a beautiful but unstable woman. It is nice to see Gwyneth actually acting again, and in a pretty gritty role that reminds just what a good actress she can be. Vinessa Shaw's character is the polar opposite but equally well developed and while her neuroses might be better hidden she definitely reveals them and proves to be a real character in her own right, not just a foil for Gwyneth's louder one.

The family setting that much of the film takes place in really grounds the film, giving it an atmosphere of normality, but also of quiet dignity. It feels totally real in a way that few films achieve.

And of course, the mother is played by the indomitable Isabella Rossellini. How glorious it is to see her beautiful face growing old gracefully. I really do adore her!

So, goodness me, I seem to have banged on rather. But even a couple of months after watching this film I am still in love with it. So my recommendation would be to rent it immediately. Although probably best not to if you are feeling at all emotionally fragile, I'm sure there is some chick flick that would be a better diversion...