Two Lovers

Two Lovers is the third successive James Gray feature to play in Competition at Cannes and it has become harder to discern why the selectors keep such resolute faith with this particular American auteur. Two Lovers is a maudlin, melancholic tug at the heartstrings that marks a welcome break from Gray’s preoccupation with crime and corruption. It is well-crafted and ably acted but never especially moving and winds up feeling like something from the classier end of the American TV movie spectrum. Neither eye-catching indie nor surefire blockbuster, it will struggle to find a comfortable commercial berth, leaving its future dependent on the drawing power of Gray regular Joaquin Phoenix.

Phoenix is the best thing about Two Lovers. His character Leonard is the kind of ordinary Joe so beloved of golden age American television drama and 1950s movies like the Oscar-winning Marty. Phoenix effectively captures all aspects of the character from his shy, boyish charm to unsettling desperation in his quest for love. The way he scratches his nose, re-arranges his clothes or seems to retreat from any crowd all help to create a sense of Leonard’s discomfort with the world. Eve n when his actions become reckless he always remains sympathetic. Phoenix’s sheer presence makes you root for the happy-ever-after ending that you know will never materialise.

Leonard has returned to the family home in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn after a broken relationship and a suicide bid. His father (Monoshov) and mother (Rossellini) welcome him back into their dry cleaning business and plot towards his future happiness.

The obvious new partner is Sandra (Shaw), daughter of the businessman buying their firm. Her sweet simplicity is defined by her choice of The Sound Of Music as her favourite film and precious little else. It becomes increasingly difficult to accept her ready tolerance of all Leonard’s broken dates and unreturned calls. The reason for his lack of attention is the distraction of new neighbour Michelle (Paltrow) who soon becomes the object of his obsessive devotion and his wildest hopes for a better future.

An old-fashioned film in many respects, Two Lovers is perhaps also something of an homage to the kind of character-driven, adult relationship dramas that flourished most readily in American cinema during the 1970s. What it lacks is the kind of intensity and raw emotion that allowed those films (Klute, An Unmarried Woman, Cinderella Liberty etc) to cut so deep and endure so well. Michelle’s disaster-strewn involvement with a married man is too much the cliche to bring much heft to the story and Sandra is more of a convenient safe option rather than a fully-rounded character able to convince us that Leonard is genuinely torn between two lovers.

Joaquin Baca-Asay, who also shot Gray’s We Own The Night, does an impressive job, depicting Manhattan as a lush fairytale world when Leonard makes a rare visit out of Brooklyn. Technically, this is a very polished piece of work but it’s the unsatisfying nature of the relationships and the obvious qualities of the story that leave the viewer feeling underwhelmed.

Production companies
2929 Productions
Wild Bunch
Tempesta Films
International sales
Wild Bunch
(33) 1 53 01 50 30

Producers
Donna Gigliotti
James Gray

Co-producers
Mike Upton
Couper Samuelson

Executive producers
Agnes Mentre
Todd Wagner
Mark Cuban
Marc Butan

Cinematographer
Joaquin Baca-Asay

Production designer
Happy Massee

Editor
John Axelrad

Music
Dana Sano

Main cast
Joaquin Phoenix
Gwyneth Paltrow
Vinessa Shaw
Isabella Rossellini
Elias Koteas