Two Lovers

When Joaquin Phoenix zoned out on Dave Letterman’s show people bought the gag wholesale. A generation ago the concept of reinventing yourself multiple times in various guises was fresh, but nowadays it’s as dead as Andy Kaufman. In case you don’t know the incident to which I refer, about this time last month (2/11/09) Phoenix appeared on Dave Letterman with the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers look he’s been sporting for, well, as long as it took to grow that Rip Van winkle beard. Television is so controlled that there’s no way Phoenix’s meltdown was the spontaneous combustion it pretended to be. I don’t pretend to be a critic of hip hop but Phoenix wants us to believe his future as an artist follows the path of music as opposed to film.
It’s too bad if Phoenix does plan to retire because he’s worthy of your sore eyes with his turn as a thirtysomething guy down on his luck that recently moved back with his parents (in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn) in Two Lovers. There’s a touch of angst like Marty felt. Marty was the guy who lives with his mom (a role won an Oscar for Ernest Borgnine in the mid-50s) and never wants to go out. Unlike his black and white counterpart Phoenix’s Leonard meets two rather hot women (Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw) right off the bat, and then spends the rest of the film deceiving them and himself.
The Brighton Beach locale will ring a bell to viewers familiar with director’s James Gray previous films like Little Odessa and We Own the Night. Like those films Two Lovers observes the tight knit binds that hold families together. Unlike Gray’s other films Two Lovers never wanders into violence. In that sense Two Lovers plays like the comic doppelganger of Gray’s forays into family ties.
Paltrow’s Michelle, a kept woman, offers the glimpse of another lifestyle to Leonard whereas Shaw’s Sandra represents the status quo since her parents and Leonard’s folks want them to get married. Much of Two Lovers’ humor comes from Leonard’s attempts to be different, like in the way he acts suave around Sandra but is kind of a dweeb with Michelle, even going so far as to mimic her taste in alcohol by ordering a Brandy Alexander.
Two Lovers, playing exclusively at the River Oaks Three, suggests that Phoenix is at the top of his game as an actor. The film swirls with potential romantic comedy balanced by dramatic obstacles.