To get a real grasp on "Two Lovers," it is imperative that one leaves any preconceived image of Williamsburg hipsters palling around the streets of Brooklyn at the door. The Brooklyn featured in "Two Lovers" is the insular Brighton Beach, where the exciting colors of Coney Island have been replaced by overcast skies and dysfunctional, love-struck New Yorkers with the bleakest of futures.
In his alleged last film role before he pursues his hip-hop career, Joaquin Phoenix delivers a jaw-dropping, unrestrained performance as Leonard Kraditor, a churlish, 30-something man trapped in shoes that are too big for him to fill. Temporarily supported by his protective parents while recovering from emotional issues, Kraditor meets two new, dissimilar love interests: the daughter of his father's business partner, Sandra Cohen (played by Vinessa Shaw), and his neighbor, Michelle Rausch (Gwyneth Paltrow). Kraditor pursues them both: Cohen with his parents' approval and Michelle secretly from his bedroom window overlooking her apartment.
Kraditor relates to the two women through the constrained situations they all share. He frequently retreats to the isolating shadows of the apartment, and it is only through Rausch that he escapes the psychological bounds of Brooklyn and, by extension, his family. Though he still prefers to shield himself and look at his lovers through a lens (photography is Kraditor's passion), through love, he is able to regress to the freedom and immaturity of adolescence.
Love keeps people from growing up and, at least in Kraditor's case, it perpetuates denial of his parents' influence and the secure, stable future they have arranged for him. It is as if the entire fate of Kraditor's character rests on his relationship with Michelle. Any failure in their relationship leads to emotional breakdowns and heartbreak.
It is a rare moment in "Two Lovers" when Kraditor addresses outright the weight of his parents' expectations, though we often see him walking through a hallway with photos of the glaring faces of his relatives in his parents' apartment. This aptly conveys the pressure Kraditor's parents put on him. The ability of co-writer/director James Gray to flesh out the intense characters in "Two Lovers" through short, telling moments does not make the movie feel slow; rather, it is a skillful appreciation of emotional depth that is lacking in mainstream cinema.
"Two Lovers" would be stripped bare without its bravura acting and relatable characters. Paltrow conveys an unstable, dependent Rausch, whose troubled emotional state only furthers Kraditor's adoration for her. The supporting performances, too, like those of Shaw and Isabella Rossellini, are top-notch.
In a moving turn as Kraditor's mother, Rossellini conjures up an all-knowing matriarch that struggles desperately for her son to find happiness. Joaquin Phoenix's performance also makes audiences hope that he seriously reconsiders his now well-known declaration of his exit from the film arena. His chops are too good in this film as well as in other roles that critics and the Academy have recognized. Maybe Gray, whom Phoenix knows from their last film together, "We Own the Night" (2007), can encourage this sort of productive collaboration and steer Phoenix away from outbursts on national television and aspirations in the music industry; if Kraditor's rapping in the film is any indication, Phoenix is not destined for greatness in that direction.
In this, his most recent film, Gray shifts to the romance genre with an authenticity of emotions largely absent from his other films. His mastery of rich cinematography and slow-motion action yields a New York film that seems transplanted from another era. Gray demonstrates a familiarity with this locale well; it is not surprising that Brighton Beach is his hometown.
Perhaps the film's strongest point is that it brings its viewers home. "Two Lovers" grounds its audience in the conflict between fulfilling our filial responsibility and branching out to the bigger world, which entails an inevitable sacrifice of family relationships. Kraditor's failure to prove his worth in his successive romantic relationships demonstrates the impossibility and futility of trying to surmount what his parents expect of him. Love, despite all of its emotional complexities, seems like a nice distraction.
