Overlooked by the Oscar voters, James Gray's Two Lovers is one of my favourite films of last year.On SBS's film website I review the film - now in DVD release - and list some of its outstanding qualities, especially the extraordinary lead performance of Joaquin Phoenix as Leonard, a bipolar Jewish-American caught between two lovers.
Extract:
"In Phoenix’s hands Leonard is frequently nervous, restless, uncomfortable in his own skin, while being apparently confident during his illness’s manic phases. We never know which way he’s going to turn, what he’s going to do next, so even when he’s behaving in an unremarkable manner we’re on the edge of our seats."
4 comments:
I really appreciated this film. Gray delivers the goods again. (I really liked WE OWN THE NIGHT actually, much more than I expected to given the fairly familiar story.)
Yep - definitely among the strongest dramas I saw last year (though I have a feeling no one else in Melbourne did). And Paltrow matched Phoenix note for note in a role just as tricky (despite the dense script, think how easy it would've been for her to come off as just a vacuous object of desire).
At the risk of raining on someone else's parade, I know that Two Lovers is highly regarded, but I was completely underwhelmed by it. It covers all kinds of dark terrain that I normally embrace, and I also love Phoenix, but I just couldn't buy into the film emotionally. I suppose that's the mystery of film.
Two Lovers is also about the attraction a Jewish boy/man has to a non-Jewish woman or sometime referred to as a shiksa. This is steeped in Jewish culture and folklore and the film does a great job in dealing with this theme. When Sandra tells Leonmard, 'I want to take care of you", this is the worst thing Leonard wants to hear. He doesn't want a woman to remind him of his mother. Leonard is often embarrassed by his mother and tells her to quit it several times. However, the film ends with Leonard being forced througb circumstances to return to the Jewish world with his mother and Sandta but is it for the best for Leonard? I don't know.
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