Two Lovers - B-

In theaters (and On-Demand). Rated R, 110 minutes. Trailer.

Writer/Director James Gray must love 70's films. Each of his movies (The Yards, We Own the Night) has the atmosphere, pacing and film stock of the golden decade. With Two Lovers, he is back again with frequent collaborator Joaquin Phoenix to tell the tale of manic 30 something ne'er do well Leonard (Phoenix) and the unlikely love triangle he forms with Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Sandra (Vinessa Shaw). The film starts with Leonard being saved from an attempted suicide by drowning.
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Leonard is back home after his fiancee is forced to leave him for unusual circumstances - his parents are (rightfully) worried about him. He is introduced to Sandra and reluctantly gives into her advances. As he begins his relationship with her, he stumbles into the way-out-of-his-league Michelle, a beautiful trainwreck involved in her own twolovers situation with a married Manhattan lawyer. He can't shake the possiblity of Michelle and he hangs out with her and obsesses over her while he skips his depression pills.

The film's relationships are interesting, and Phoenix's Leonard is very funny. I am not sure if that was the intent, but I laughed outloud several times at his crazy and infantile behavior. The film is a C+ until the last series of scenes - at that point it becomes more thought provoking and exposes the many layers of love and the realities of commitment in marriage and the secrets people have.

Gray has promise, but as with The Yards and We Own the Night, it never comes together enough to make a great film. It WAS cool to watch it on Video On Demand (for me its VOD on Verizon FiOs) at home for $6.99 before it even came out at the theater. Che is also being shown that way, so I'll try and do that as well.