Gray's approach is firm and sharp, heightening the anxiety of the situations he presents without every resorting to melodrama. Phoenix is quite good as a man who's trained himself to approach the world with great care, but can't help letting himself get caught up in the notion of grabbing reckless freedom. Eventually, Gray loses his own grip on the story, and most of the last act feels both false and predictable. The moody character study still works, but the plot falls apart around it.

Dark, wintry locale and cinematography give this a mournful air, and with the devastating ending, reminded me of a Polish film.

"The buried themes in James Gray's fourth film, Two Lovers, slowly emerge from its accumulation of quotidian, seemingly small details." - Dan Callahan

Two Lovers captures the dueling, irreconcilable tension between the intrinsically human desires for stability and self-destruction even as it works as a remarkably subtle rumination of the sexual politics of ethnic assimilation. Assured, beautiful, and finally devastating.

Joaquin Phoenix is good at playing goofy but he uses the mumbling as a crutch and that soon became tiresome. Many times I didn't understand a word. The story, bringing nothing new, rings true. And any movie - good or (as is unfortunately often the case) not - with the great Elias Koteas AKA "The Canadian Who Transformed Into Robert De Niro" is okay with me.

This is so good, with scenes forseeing a master (the first scene on the roof, for instance). Again, Gray use shadows to create moods and takes his characters serious, depicting them with great care and dignity. This film is so fucking measured.

Understated and somewhat downbeat. Very pleasingly shot with beautiful colors. Enjoyably calm soundtrack that suits the mood of the film. The characterizations and dialogue are superior, although nothing departs too far from convention. A couple of missteps, perhaps, but certainly a fair attempt at a moderately sophisticated romantic drama.

This film takes a cliche subject--a man torn between the good-for-him girl his parents want him to marry and the bad-for-him girl he can't get out of his head--and creates from it something exceptional and moving. Part of this comes from the low-key direction and screenplay, but the bulk of the credit goes to Phoenix who portrays a young man so sensitive and so subtly damaged that we are certain he will not survive making the wrong choice and we like him enough that his fate matters to us.

It's tempting to compare this to White Nights, which it can't live up to, of which it's a very loose adaptation. It keeps the emotional core of the characters but the different situations change which aspects are emphasized. Without the baggage, though, it's a wonderful film with some very strong performances and scenes that really resonate. The performances really capture the little moments with glances and subtle reactions.

24 Juliol 2011 - He pensat durant la pel·lícula en com mantenir l'interès en l'acció. En cap moment se m'ha fet avorrida. Crec que també he pensat que no sabria què dir-ne si volgués parlar-ne. Ús particular de la música. Manera poc convencional (potser poc ortodoxa) de triar plans i moviments. De nou, com a La Pianiste, m'ha transmès una idea de molts elements fora de control, crec.

A fine acting. Even Paltrow was acceptable. The shine of the story was of course the lead, Joaquin Phoenix. The story was pretty common, but the way they did it, I enjoyed.

Two Lovers explores the dualistic nature of lusting the person who's bad for you and loving the person who isn't, played wonderfully by its three stars but never fully realized by its screenplay or direction.