Two Lovers

This is a low-key romantic drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, with a couple of good supporting turns from Isabella Rossellini and Elias Koteas. I expected a solid piece of drama, and that is what we saw. Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard Kraditor, a late twenty-something living in Brighton Beach, a far flung New York neighbourhood. Suffering from bi-polar disorder and low self belief after his planned marriage is scuppered by his future in-laws, he has returned to living with his parents and working in the family business as he tries to put his life back together. His father, Reuben, owns a launderette which he plans to merge with one owned by Mr. Cohen, another Jewish businessman. The two families meet for dinner at the Kraditor’s place, and it becomes somewhat clumsily obvious that the two fathers are planning to cement the business merger with marriage. Sandra Cohen, played by Vinessa Shaw, appears to be a pleasant and unremarkable woman, and as much out of a sense of obligation as anything else, Leonard plays along with the game set up for him by his parents until he a chance meeting with a beautiful and engaging neighbour, Michelle, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.

Two Lovers is a well-made movie, and plots its course from one event to another in a steady fashion, but at no point does it do anything exciting or inventive. It’s set in a humdrum part of New York, and the filmmakers evoke that mundanity precisely. Much of the movie consists of close and medium shots, the interiors of apartments and launderettes, and little attempt is made to find beauty in these spaces. It seems that Leonard harbours some ambitions in the direction of photography, which would perhaps offer him some escape from his feelings of entrapment, but the only photos of his we see are head-on shots of local businesses. At no point do either the viewer or Leonard have any respite from the everyday, and the everyday is presented as being dreary. The tone of the film is inflected by Leonard’s subjectivity, but only the sad part. It seems the filmmakers missed a trick by not investigating the possibility of seeing the world through Leonard’s eyes when he’s “up.”

So much of this movie’s emotional impact hinges on the viewer feeling for Leonard, but we’re simply not offered enough to care about. Joaquin Phoenix has done a very good job of creating a character. Leonard shambles through the movie, mumbling almost incoherently, performing hyperactive gags at the launderette and sinking deep into sullen reverie at home. Trapped in the confines of his parents apartment it’s as if he has reverted into a teenager. Although it’s a fine performance, it’s probably not quite the right one for this movie, because we never see what motivates people to fall in love with him.

The distant and unattainable Michelle almost certainly doesn’t love him, but uses the attention he gives her to bolster her confidence during a troubling period of her life, and this comes across clearly. The more everyday Sandra also claims to love Leonard, but there is little evidence to support this notion. Leonard simply isn’t that irresistible – he doesn’t sparkle enough when he’s up to make you want to follow him when he’s down. When he’s lively he’s manic, but not flirtatious or engaging. Perhaps Sandra is simply being a dutiful daughter and agreeing to the match made by her parents for the sake of the family. In any case, the character feels like a cipher. Gwyneth Paltrow definitely has the meatier role, and is convincingly magnetic.

Its worth noting that Isabella Rossellini does a marvellous job of taking a very small and potentially thankless role as Leonard’s smothering mother and makes it into the stand-out performance of the film. The concern, patience, self-restraint and love she conveys during the brief scene in which Leonard leaves the apartment at the film’s anxious climax is heartbreaking.

The central problem with the film is that the viewer simply doesn’t care enough whether Leonard survives to the end of the final reel or not. It’s a pity because in Two Lovers there is plenty to admire but just not enough to love.