Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) is in over his head—quite literally, in the opening scene of Two Lovers. He's jumped into the murky waters off Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn, New York, and is rescued by a passing stranger. He offers his rescuer a half-hearted "thank you" before casually sauntering home. And when his worried mom (Isabella Rossellini) sees that he's dripping wet, Leonard assures her "I won't do it again." It seems he's not so much a man who wants to die as one who's lost and directionless. More adrift than drowning.
We soon realize why. This 30-something guy is living at home with his overprotective parents while he recovers from a recent broken engagement. He's stuck working in their dry cleaning business instead of pursuing his passion for photography. And he's bipolar, a fact his staid parents discuss in hushed tones outside his bedroom door.
Joaquin Phoenix as Leonard
The night of his bridge-jumping, Leonard meets Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of family friends who own a dry cleaning business across town. She's quiet and sweet and pretty. All lovely smiles to his awkward unkemptness. They agree to go out, but before they can follow through, Leonard also meets new neighbor Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow). She's hot and loud and full of raw vulnerability. She's as much of a mess as Leonard is. They start texting and phoning and hollering to each other across their adjacent windows.
Soon Leonard is in the beginning stages of relationship with both women. He's utterly taken with Michelle, following her in their neighborhood, going clubbing with her and her girlfriends, meeting her married boyfriend at her request he check him out. Through it all, Michelle seems unaware of the intense power she wields with her fragility and neediness. She leans on him like a crutch; he breathes her in like a drug.
Isabella Rossellini as Leonard's mom
It's not until Leonard sees Michelle with her married boyfriend that he finally takes notice of Sandra. It's like he takes his unrequited passion for Michelle out on Sandra, quickly taking her to his bed, a stone's throw from the home of the woman he's really obsessed with. Leonard's parents also push him toward Sandra, knowing she's a nice, stable girl for their bipolar son and knowing an alliance between their families would be beneficial for business. She gently fawns over Leonard, inviting him to family functions and buying him gloves when she notices he doesn't wear any despite the winter cold.
We know from the title that Leonard will face a crossroads, a choice. Which woman? Sandra or Michelle? A loving wife or a hot girlfriend? Stability or intensity? Being loved or feeling obsessed? Reason or impulse? So much hangs in the balance.
Like the recent Revolutionary Road, Two Lovers seems to ask such questions in an effort to find where true happiness lies. Can we find it in the arms of another person? In settling down? In prudent decisions about work and love and life? Such questions are certainly worthwhile, and in the day-to-day crush of life we often need outside influences to ask us such big-picture, soul-deep questions about the consequences of our choices. But I feel both movies muddle the message with characters who are suffering from emotional disorders (depression in Revolutionary Road, bipolar disorder in Two Lovers). It's tough to pull these life questions apart from the unique and extreme realities of these main characters. And so the questions become: Can a depressed woman find happiness in suburbia? Can a bipolar man find true love? And if so, what does that look like?
Leonard and Sandra (Vinessa Shaw)
As this bipolar man, Phoenix does an apt job. His Leonard Kraditor jangles with unrestrained impulse. Much has been made of his current state of mind given his recent appearance on Letterman, where he seemed stoned. Whatever the case, he delivers believably bipolar and obsessive here. At times he's frustratingly passive and adrift, but that seems more a product of the script than of Phoenix's delivery.
Paltrow is even more effective as messed-up Michelle. Her accent gets Brooklyn-ier at times, but otherwise she's consistently strong in her magnetic fragility and flighty passions. I wish Shaw, and her love story as Sandra, were given more screen time. And it's delightful to see lovely Isabella Rossellini on the big screen again, even if she is rather matronly as Leonard's worried mom.
Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Leonard
It's also delightful that these characters are dressed in real-people clothes, with untucked shirt-tails and frumpy coats. The sets are likewise realistically messy and kitschy and cluttered. Not the movie-cute version of an overgrown man-child's bedroom in his parents' home, but something that would really make a guy cringe to have a woman see. These details are refreshing touches.
I wish I could say the same for all the plot details. Some are too convenient or contrived. Some you see coming a long ways off (like that Leonard will return to that opening-scene water, despite, and especially because of, what he told his mom). And a few scenes or bits of dialogue are overdramatic, leading me and the rest of the audience at my screening to laugh in a few places I don't think we were intended to laugh.
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There are good intentions here, and good ingredients. But the sum total feels less like a passionate lover and more like a passing crush.
Talk About It
Discussion starters
1. What do you think Leonard is drawn to in each woman? What do you think they see in him?
2. List the other characters in the film who are also torn. What common threads run through these conflicts?
3. What do you think Michelle's intentions are toward Leonard throughout the film?
4. Do you think Reuben and Ruth were good parents to their bipolar son, Leonard?
5. Were you satisfied with the ending? What do you think were Leonard's motivations for his choice?
The Family Corner
For parents to consider
Two Lovers is rated R for language, some sexuality, and brief drug use. There are quite a few f-bombs, a few sex scenes (all extra-marital), a scene where Michelle pops a pill (not just an Aleve), and a brief boob shot. This certainly isn't a film for young viewers, and it would be tricky to find redeeming conversation starters for mature teens afterward.
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