You'll see plenty of delusional thinking in this one.A 30-ish guy comes home to his family after a stint in the loony bin. He is suicidal, popping psychiatric meds, works in his dad's laundry (but fails at even that simple job) and is indulged in an "art" he's not very good at and that we never see him work at. He is inarticulate and self- pitying and still has a photo of his fiancé, now two years gone, by his bed. Into this pitiful life come two beautiful employed women who want him very much. Why? No story reason suggests itself. No one with any life experience would believe such women would. When he has sex with them, they have orgasms within 15 seconds or so, leading me to suspect the writer/director may have never had sex with an actual woman. (Or maybe the women are faking it to get rid of him more quickly, which would make some sense.)His parents never are anything less than 100% supportive, no matter how awful his behavior, which I you could argue explains how much of a loser he is, but I don't believe the script is that self-aware.I liked the set design, the score wasn't as manipulative as you might fear it would be considering the soap opera nature of the story, and the acting was fine. But the screenwriter's ideas about women are risible fantasies of an adolescent mind. I fully expect him to be writing movies in 50 years wherein hot 18 year old women are incredibly attracted to ugly 70 year old men, because we've seen that's what the puer aeternus does.

Two Lovers is a decisive improvement over Joaquin Phoenix's previous collaborations with director James Gray, and it may well be Phoenix's finest performance yet. It's a much smaller, simpler story than that of We Own The Night, and as a result it's more focused and leaves a stronger impression.The themes of family and duty are still very central in Two Lover, but this time the conflict is almost entirely within the protagonist's head, and Phoenix does a good enough job to pull it off - he's vulnerable, pitiable, charming and charismatic all at once, and he's very relatable. The basic premise of his conflict - a man being torn between his family's expectations and his wild, passionate love - has been done many times before, but rarely this sincerely and brutally honest. Two Lovers serves almost as a deconstruction of that ages-old tale, it's one of the most honest romance films I've ever seen and it leads down to a crushing but inevitable conclusion.Phoenix is aided by a fine cast of supporting actors, all of them doing a terrific job but never stealing the show - Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw as the love interests, Isabella Rossellini as Phoenix's mother and a special mention for Moni Moshonov - one of the biggest stars of stage and screen in his native Israel - in a wonderful turn as the father. Elias Koteas and Bob Ari complete the compact ensemble, but of course it's Phoenix's show and he's always captivating, proving just how good he can be. My only complaints about the film would be an uneven and sometimes clumsy script, and cinematography that fails to leave any real impression (in stark contrast to We Own The Night, of which the cinematography was the most impressive aspect). None of that hurts the overall impression much, though - Two Lovers is still one of the most refreshing, captivating and depressing romance films around.

James Gray directs "Two Lovers". The film is based on "White Nights", a short story by literature's glowering giant, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky's story was previously turned into "Four Nights of a Dreamer" by Robert Bresson and "White Nights" (1957) by Luchino Visconti. Though dated in some respects, both are fine films.Gray's plot? Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard, a young man living with his parents and working in their dry cleaners shop on Coney Island. In typical Dostoyevsky fashion, Leonard is perpetually unhappy, suicidal and has suffered some traumatic incidents in his recent past. He's also a photographer.Into Leonard's life steps two women, one played by Vinessa Shaw the other by Gwyneth Paltrow. Shaw fawns over Leonard, but he's attracted to Paltrow because she, like him, represents damaged goods. The film then becomes a lesson in propinquity, like-attracting-like to both subject's detriment. Leonard and Paltrow are like a couple of enablers, two negatively affected people feeding off each other as they're dragged inexorably toward the black. Leonard then breaks free of Paltrow and opts for Shaw, the sweet-faced girl who essentially saves his life.Gray's title seems to have a double meaning, referring both to Leonard's twin romantic options, and his relationship with his mother, who worries and watches over her child, and seems to have entombed him in a womb of perpetual youth. Living in his parent's home, in a tiny bedroom, surrounded by totems of childhood, Leonard is in a state of arrested development, caught between adulthood and a scarred, traumatised childhood. Shaw offers Leonard the opportunity to grow up, to overcome his pain, whilst Mommy and Paltrow keep Leonard in a sullen solace which only cripples him further.James Gray wears his influences on his sleeves. His film channels Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty" and is heavily indebted to Luchino Visconti (Gray seems to love Visconti; his crime films reference Visconti's "Rocco and his Brothers", and a dance sequence in "Two Lovers" recalls Visconti's "White Nights"). Though it boasts fine performances and palpable atmosphere, "Two Lovers" eventually degenerates into clichés. Elsewhere actor Joaquin Phoenix is far too old for his role. Isabella Rossellini co-stars.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Searching For a Midnight Kiss", "In The City of Sylvia", "Beyond The Clouds" and the romances of Rohmer and Linklater.

In James Gray's Two Lovers, Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is torn between two women, each of whom is right for him, and wrong for him, in different ways. When we meet Leonard, he's jumping into the river in a suicide attempt; he changes his mind at the last minute, struggling to the surface and gasping for air. It's a scene that tells us much of what we need to know about Leonard: This is a man torn between the desire to end the pain in his life, and the equally strong desire to fight against it. Leonard, we come to learn, was engaged to be married, but when he and his fiancée both tested positive for the gene that carries Tay-Sachs syndrome, her family called off the engagement and she disappeared. Leonard's mother, Ruth (Isabella Rossellini), hovers protectively over her only child, trying to help him move on, while at the same time clinging to him with a fierceness that may not be in his best interest.Leonard's parents introduce him to Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of a wealthy businessman with whom Leonard's father hopes to strike a partnership. The message from Leonard's father is clear: A marriage between Leonard and Sandra would be good for the family business, and Leonard's parents would be thrilled to see their son move on from his failed engagement to a marriage with Sandra, a nice Jewish girl with whom Leonard could produce cute little Jewish grandchildren. At the same time, though, Leonard meets Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a blond, leggy shiksa goddess who's the antithesis of everything Leonard's parents desire for their son in a match.