Two Lovers (www.the-usher.com)

"I Love you"

Leonard (Phoenix) has been struggling to cope with his fiancé leaving him for a long time and never thought he could love again. Moving back in with his parents and working with for his father’s business, he covered his pain by been the life and sole and making everyone laugh. When his parents introduce him to their friend’s daughter Sandra (Shaw), he thinks he might have a chance of getting his life back to normal but this all changes when he meets his new neighbour Michelle (Paltrow), a beautiful but troubled woman who instantly takes a shine to Leonard.

Joaquin Phoenix’s acting career has been filled with many a highlight but with his announcement of his early retirement in October 2008, can ‘Two Lovers’ be an excellent swansong?

Hailed as one of the best actors of his generation and nominated for two Oscars for his role in ‘Gladiator’ and for playing Johnny Cash in ‘Walk the Line’, Joaquin Phoenix is definitely a talent but when he announced his retirement from acting in October 2008 at the age of 34, critics and fans alike thought this was a little strange. When he announced that he was actually giving up acting to concentrate on his music, sporting a huge beard and when quizzed about what music he would be performing by celebrity interviewer David Letterman, he replied hip-hop, you might be right in thinking that everything is no quite right. This is his last movie however (for now) and it showcases what a great actor he actually is.

Writer/director James Gray has worked with Joaquin Phoenix twice before in ‘The Yards’ and ‘We Own the Night’ but ‘Two Lovers’ is a very different genre of movie for the filmmaker. This is a story of coping with rejection and turning that pain into obsession. For Leonard, the pain he feels after losing his fiancé has driven him into a depression that caused him to try and take his own life on more than one occasion. Driven home to live with his parents, he gets the chance to start again when he is introduced to Sandra, the daughter of a family friend, who likes him but Leonard doesn’t want to follow a pre-chosen path. He chance of liberation comes in the shape of his new, beautiful and intriguing neighbour Michelle. She is from a rich family, a former addict and the lover of a prominent New York businessman but in Leonard she makes an instant friend and confidant. Leonard sees much more in this however and sees her as the exciting life he craves and far from the simple life he would have Sandra. This, of course, makes for excellent social drama but it isn’t as captivating as it should have been.

For a story like this, the performances have to be riveting and consuming but there is something missing from both the leading actors portrayals. Joaquin Phoenix is suitably distant and slightly weird as Leonard but it is difficult to see what both Michelle and Sandra see in him. He is obviously troubled and in some ways, socially inept but they are still drawn to him. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Michelle is beautiful but extremely shallow, never noticing Leonard’s problems but using him for the attention she longs for but it not receiving from her married lover. Vinessa Shaw’s Sandra is extremely underdeveloped and too beautiful to be considered as a plain, homely woman who Leonard should settle for. Each of these characters are not strong enough to support the story, making you feel that while you are watching a piece of human interaction, you can’t believe that it is real.

‘Two Lovers’ is a missed opportunity. While it covers depression, obsessions and acceptance, the lack of development of the characters makes the subject matter a little too shallow to be convincing. Let’s just hope that Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t rap about this movie.

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2009