Two Lovers
by James Gray
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DVD details
Actor: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joaquin Phoenix, Vinessa ShawDirector: James Gray
Brand: Magnolia Pictures
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-06-30
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 10189
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Two Lovers
DVD Review: Shadow Play
Summary: 5 Stars
For the most part little films like James Gray's "Two Lovers" set amongst the somewhat old-world angst of New York's Brighton Beach and its primarily Russian-Jewish denizens compel their audience to settle into the nuance and shadow of a smaller universe defined not only by the more concentrated dynamics of traditional expectations but the desire for assimilation into a broader experience unencumbered by static identities.
Wow! That sentence surely presents a seemingly pompous sounding mouthful on which to chew and ponder. Nevertheless, that is exactly what "Two Lovers" offers, the opportunity to worry within the mindset of sleeping giant, Leonard the dreamer (played by Joaquin Phoenix with an earnest twitchiness that underlies his character's sense of being buried alive) as he struggles to reach beyond the cage created for and by him and his family's prospects and into the wider less rigid vista of obligationless freedom.
Initially, Leonard's present situation of living under the surveillance of his well-intentioned albeit understandably anxious parents (Isabella Rossellini and Moni Moshonov) hovers about him like the dank and gassy steam from an endless refill of Mama's potent yet lethargy-inducing chicken soup. Is he really alive? Is his life just a constant repeat of a Groundhog Day replete with too many shadows? The audience understands that prior to the time scope of the film he has whole-heartedly endeavored to live the work-a-day life of any other Brighton Beacher, believing in the promise that with his honest industry, happiness will follow. However, after both he and his one-time fiancée test positive for Tay-Sachs, his faith in the concept of hard work reaping subsequent reward transmutes into multiple suicide attempts aided by the realization of the bleak future of running his father's dry cleaning business. The endless repetitiveness of the situation places Leonard in a could-be-forever freeze-frame like one of his black and white art photographs where life is captured and not lived. That is until lost girl Michelle--all swinging blonde mane and city black cigarette pants--heightens all the gray wintry energy swirling around Leonard like a somnolent cloud into the sharp focus of colorful desire. Indeed, Leonard is awakened from his perpetual torpidity; as they say, he comes ALIVE.
Leonard's awakening is represented by the appearance of not one but two women: the Ashkenazi perfect Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the sweet and sexy daughter of his father's business associate with whom a marital alliance would prove advantageous from the vantage point of family approval and all-around Brighton Beach compatibility and the emotionally unstable Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a delicious Shiksa damsel-in-distress forlorn about her involvement with an unappreciative married man and needing Leonard's stalwart friendship. Platonically-challenged Leonard poo poos this roadblock quickly; one whiff of this flower-in-the-desert's scent sends him into the thermospheric realm of the ultimate escape fantasy. "Wow," Leonard pants excitedly overwhelmed by his good fortune (and I paraphrase), "I really haven't been alive until now!"
While the actual plot may border on the formulaic--sheltered boy with strong cultural ties fancies girl with questionable mores while good girl waits patiently until he comes to his senses--the ending matters even less as the real beauty of the film lies not in its resolution but in its ability to depict a spectrum of fully nuanced emotions. Director Gray portrays the mediocrity of constricted lives within the narrow band of family need with the adeptness of a veteran anesthesiologist. And like a magician, he easily infuses the audience with empathy as Leonard's myopic cocoon transforms with kaleidoscopic colors of hope for a different future that he begins to see in a different way from another more serving perspective.
Phoenix flies through this film with great confidence in his ability to craft a character both pragmatic and optimistically dreamy. The resultant Leonard flickers between great moments of sadness and happiness with the anti-heroic overtones of the quintessential Russian literary lead that is more than at home on the shores of the Little Odessa of Brighton Beach.
Isabella Rossellini renders the part of Leonard's mother with ease and grace; her Ruth Kraditor reeks with a mixture of suspicion, concern and perplexed understanding that epitomize the matriarch who protects both her progeny and livelihood from equally vehement sources.
Bottom line? In his third film set in New York's Brighton Beach (Little Odessa, We Own the Night) director James Gray borrows the theme of the unrequited love of a socially inept dreamer from Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story `White Nights' -Notes From Underground, White Nights, the Dream of a Ridiculous Man and Selections From the House of the Dead.- and gives it a 21st century twist. Performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow and Isabella Rossellini transform this carefully nuanced script into a little gem of a film. Recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
Description of Two Lovers
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