Two Lovers [Blu-ray] | ![Two Lovers [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5143jj3Ln2L._SL500_.jpg) | Director: James Gray
Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $17.01
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Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 41112
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 876964001908
UPC: 876964001908
EAN: 0876964001908
ASIN: B001RNCSXG
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: June 30, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Set in the insular world of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, TWO LOVERS is aic romantic drama, with Joaquin Phoenix giving a raw and vulnerable performance as Leonard, a charismatic but troubled young man who moves back into his childhood home following a recent heartbreak. While recovering under the watchful eye of his parents (Isabella Rossellini and Moni Monoshov), Leonard meets two women in quick suc |
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Product Description
TWO LOVERS (BLU-RAY/WS-2.35/SP-ENG SUB)
Amazon.com
Russian-American director James Gray (The Yards) has never made any secret of his affection for the Italian crime drama. That operatic influence permeated his first three features, but Two Lovers takes more cues from intimate French films and angst-ridden Russian fiction (specifically Dostoevsky's short story "White Nights"). Aspiring photographer Leonard (Gray regular Joaquin Phoenix) returns to Brooklyn after a failed relationship only to find himself torn between two paramours of opposing personalities. Sandra (Vinessa Shaw, 3:10 to Yuma) represents the safe choice, while Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow, recalling her streetwise character in P.T. Anderson's Hard Eight) presents more of a challenge--she's a party girl in love with a married man--but Michelle excites him in ways the thoughtful and attentive Sandra, a drug-company rep, does not. Gray leaves it up to viewers to determine whether Leonard should factor religion into his decision; his supportive parents (Isabella Rossellini and Moni Monoshov) would love to see him pair up with the Jewish Sandra, but mostly they want their only son to be happy. If he joins his father--and Sandra's--in the dry-cleaning game, that would be a happy bonus (the men are working on a merger). Though Leonard's bipolar quirks threaten to derail the proceedings--it's hard to believe two beautiful women would gravitate towards such a socially awkward fellow--Two Lovers marks an improvement over Gray's previous movie, We Own the Night, and a welcome return to the picturesque Brighton Beach neighborhood of Little Odessa, his auspicious debut. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
 Updated 'Marty' is no 'Streetcar' February 22, 2010
Turfseer (New York, N.Y.)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Reading all the positive reviews for 'Two Lovers', you would think that this is the new 'Streetcar Named Desire'. Well it isn't! It's more akin to the old chestnut, 'Marty', starring Ernest Borgnine. Our updated 'Marty' character is Leonard Kraditor (supposedly the last role of Joaquin Phoenix, who fairly recently announced his retirement from the movies). Like Marty who lived at home with his mother, Leonard lives with both parents in an apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn (Marty by the way was a butcher in the Bronx). Both Marty and Leonard are pretty much low-key, 'nice guys' but Leonard has a much darker past: he's on medication now after a breakup with his fiancé--they were forced to break up by the fiancé's parents who learned that the couple could not have children as they both had an incompatible genetic profile. Things had gotten so bad for Leonard that we see him jumping into the ocean, trying to kill himself, at the beginning of the movie.
Leonard is saved from drowning by a good Samaritan and returns to his parents' apartment where we soon learn that he works for his father in a dry cleaning business and is a talented amateur photographer. Two women soon appear on the scene that complicate his life. First there's Michelle, (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is a neighbor of Leonard in the building. She's having an affair with a married attorney at work and can't decide whether she should continue in the relationship. So she invites Leonard to meet the attorney so he can advise her as to what she thinks of him. Eventually, Gwyneth falls deathly sick and Leonard brings her to the hospital where it's discovered she's having a miscarriage. The attorney callously fails to visit Michelle during the height of the crisis and she decides that she's going to go off with Leonard to San Francisco.
Before the relationship develops with Michelle, Leonard meets Sandra (Vinessa Shaw) who is the daughter of another dry cleaner who wants to merge his business with Leonard's father. Sandra is a nondescript, 'nice girl' (sort of a female 'Marty') who can't seem to meet the right guy. Both Leonard and Sandra's parents have arranged for them to meet and inexplicably, after a short time, the lonely couple has hopped into bed together (this is after Leonard has become disenchanted with Michelle once he learns that she's committed herself to the attorney). Shaw has little screen time as Sandra and the character is pretty much a cipher. And why the relationship develops so quickly between the two lonely people is never really explained (could it be that it's simply a weak plot device in order to set up Leonard's internal conflict of being forced to choose between the two lovers?)
Leonard's decision to chuck everything and run off with Michelle is the high point of the melodrama. Whether anyone in real life would actually do such a thing is highly questionable (how does he expect to support himself in San Francisco when he knows no one there and has few marketable skills?). More true to life is Michelle's decision to run back to the attorney after he promises to break up with his wife and move in with her. All's well that end's well when Leonard returns to the New Year's Party back at the apartment and gives the engagement ring that he had bought for Michelle, to Sandra instead.
In terms of character, I question how the smitten Michelle would ever consider getting involved physically with a 36 year old guy who still lives at home with his parents. And as far as the attractive Sandra being hard up for guys and falling for the bi-polar Leonard, I couldn't buy that either. Leonard's parents also seemed unusually passive. The mother learns that Leonard is planning to fly the coop and sabotage the business arrangement that her husband has been planning with the prospective father-in-law. Nary a peep from the mother as Leonard walks out the door.
'Two Lovers' is nicely photographed and has a storyline that will mildly hold your interest. The problem is that sad-sacks, characters who don't have much of an ego, usually don't make make for good drama. The more successful indie dramas feature protagonists who at their core, like themselves. To quote a fellow internet poster who couldn't have put it better about this film: "I am growing weary of having dreariness, bleakness, and social awkwardness equated with depth and genius."
So implausible that I was never absorbed in the story February 21, 2010
Louie's Mom (Dallas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When you are conscious that you are watching a movie, and wondering if it will get any better before the end, the movie doesn't "work." The opening of the movie was fine - Leonard, a depressed young man (played by Joaquin Phoenix) has moved back in with his parents and is helping them in their business. Leonard's depression appears to be the result of a broken engagement. Leonard tells one of the women that genetic testing showed he and his fiance both carried a gene for a birth defect and the woman broke their engagement over this. Leonard jumps in a river in a lame attempt at suicide. After this scene, the movie really goes off the rails. Leonard is self absorbed, disheveled, and aimless - so why would either of these 2 beautiful, employed women be interested in getting to know him? It's not as if he is very attractive, intelligent, witty or interesting. The next thing that struck me as implausible was that one of them (played by Gweneth Paltrow) would blurt out to him, the first time they went out (with a group of people), that she was having an affair with Ronald, a married man and was disappointed that Ronald would not leave his wife. It moves on from that tired cliche to her interest in including him in a dinner with Ronald. Now we are to believe that Leonard has gone, in perhaps 2 days, from attempting suicide to dressing up and going to dinner at a fine restaurant in Manhattan with a neighbor and her lover. Why Ronald, a partner at the law firm where Gweneth works, would have dinner with Gweneth's "neighbor" is also a puzzle. The morning after Gweneth wants to know if Leonard thinks her lover really wants to be with her one day. Groan. I want the 110 minutes I spent watching this film BACK.
 Bad acting, horrid script, lame plot. January 27, 2010
V. Cook (Portland, OR)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am really dissapointed in this movie. The two women who are involved for this man are completely lacking depth or believability. Paltrow seemed to barely try in her role--which is easy to do with how dull the script is, and I think Leonard is not worthy of either woman's attentions. Plus he is extremely boring. He is like one of those guys who tries to be funny and quirky when inside they are actually retarded. Sandra fell way too easy for Leonard, and they had sex without ever having held a whole conversation. The whole movie is just chalk-full of emotionally-disturbed people who are so needy they jump for the first person who shows interest in them-being Leonard.
It could have been waaaaaay better had the script been written better, and if the actors had tried to pretend they wanted to make a successful movie.
 Well made drama, with great performances December 8, 2009
Andres C. Salama (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An interesting drama about an imperfect love triangle. Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard, a man perhaps in his early thirties, living in an apartment in Brooklyn with his parents, a Jewish couple who have a small dry cleaning operation where Leonard works. Leonard has a story behind him: an engagement with a girl was broken some years ago when they found that they were genetically incompatible, and he has tried to kill himself in the past, more than once. His parents, worried by him, try to set him up with Sandra, the nice daughter of a fellow (and apparently wealthier) Jewish businessman. Though not terribly enthusiastic about Sandra, he starts going out with her, who is very attracted to him (why a seemingly down to earth person like Sandra would be attracted to an obviously troubled person like Leonard is unclear, though I suppose things like this happen, though not very usually, in real life). But just when Leonard and Sandra start meeting and knowing each other, he meets Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow, who is great), an impetuous, beautiful, but messed-up neighbor. Leonard falls for Michelle quickly, but soon realizes that she sees him basically as an asexual friend, and feels no sexual attraction whatsoever for him. In fact, Michelle has a relationship with a married man, and wants Leonard to go out with them in order to see if he would be willing to leave his family to her. A normal guy would realize there is no hope with her and tell her goodbye at this point, but Leonard is too smitten with Michelle to do so. And so, while his relationship with Sandra starts growing, so does his obsession with Michelle (who, while not really loving him, is constantly calling him for help). At the end, Leonard would have to make a choice between living with the nice Sandra, who loves him but is somewhat boring, and the unstable Michelle, who is gorgeous and fun to be with, but also very unstable, and if that wasn't enough, really doesn't love him, and would probably leave him soon if she would even agree to be with him. Not an awful dilemma for a well grounded person. One could argue with the resolution, assuming that Michelle is telling Leonard the truth (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD): men almost never leave their wives for their lovers, and especially unstable and emotionally immature women like Michelle. Still, these points aside, this is a solid, well-acted movie, which is never boring, and rings truthful most of the time.
Plan B of an emotional con artist? November 26, 2009
TGav (Boston)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Deliberate, dark, and subtlety suspenseful, this movie explores emotional vulnerability and immaturity. One tries to sympathize with the main character, Leonard (Phoenix), but we end up pitying Sandra (Vinessa Shaw). He's a failed adult, in part due to mental illness, but more owing to laziness and complacency and stunted emotional development.
The writing and acting of all involved especially Phoenix are remarkable. Rossellini as the over-protective and intrusive mother (? are we to believe she has a role in her son's neurosis) also delivers a subtle and consistent performance.
Gray adeptly captures the mood of Brighton Beach middle class.
As to the ending, based on Leonard's behavior and choices made throughout the movie - what we know of him- leads one to sense that returning to Sandra was nothing more than landing on a safety net after a daring but failed trapeze attempt. He tried making an impetuous break for it. It didn't work out. His options? Suicide, or pragmatically, not losing his investment in the ring by proposing to his "Plan B". He's the anti-hero to Hoffman in "The Graduate".
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
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