Two Lovers (2008)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 158
Fresh: 130 | Rotten: 28
Two Lovers is a complex, intriguing, richly-acted romantic drama
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 4
Two Lovers is a complex, intriguing, richly-acted romantic drama
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 55,287
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Movie Info
A depressed young man moves back in with his parents and finds his life turned upside down as he struggles to choose between the beautiful daughter of a close family friend and the scintillating but volatile next-door neighbor whose passion helps to reignite his lust for life. The third screen outing for writer/director James Gray and actor Joaquin Phoenix following We Own the Night and The Yards, Two Lovers co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, and Vinessa Shaw. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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Cast
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Joaquin Phoenix
Leonard Kraditor -
Gwyneth Paltrow
Michelle Rausch -
Vinessa Shaw
Sandra Cohen -
Isabella Rossellini
Ruth Kraditor -
Elias Koteas
Ronald Blatt -
Moni Moshonov
Reuben Kraditor -
John Ortiz
Jose Cordero -
Bob Ari
Michael Cohen -
Julie Budd
Carol Cohen
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All Critics (162) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (135) | Rotten (28) | DVD (10)
Phoenix plays that schism -- the damaged soul in a hunky body -- to perfection, so well that we overlook the logical chasm at the centre of the tale.
Top CriticGray guides his strong cast to a resolution that is both surprising and entirely realistic.
Gray's direction lovingly toys with images of containment and release, effectively playing out the drama in visual terms - but we never really feel it.
If Two Lovers winds up being Phoenix's last movie, at least it offers posterity incontrovertible proof that, once, he was a contender.
What elevates Two Lovers beyond the mundane is the strength of the performances.
Phoenix's performance overwhelms the slight story.
What made the filmmakers come up with such a 1959 scenario? Better yet, how did they make this hoary plot so damned entertaining? Must be movie magic.
Please, don't be fooled by this. It's all showboating scenes, pretentious ideals and NO realism whatsoever.
I can't stop thinking about Leonard, how I want him to be free, living an authentic life ... but also to to remain under supervision so he won't mess himself up. Phoenix is brilliant here.
We know the characters better than they know themselves
... it's instructive to view director/co-writer ... James Gray's take on the effects of private infidelity.
Tells a pretty old story but gets you hooked on its atmosphere and how it embellishes the heady sensation of shedding the coldness of solitude and depression with the warmth of walking through a new romance.
Lugubrious affair involving a young man suffering from weltschmerz and the two women he loves set in Brighton Beach.
This is supposed to be a romantic drama, but Woody Allen could have made a very funny film out of this exact same story.
Trying, unwieldy, and affecting
While watching Phoenix mumbling in a stupor on Letterman is perversely entertaining, it's a lot more edifying to watch him give what he says is his final acting performance in director James Gray's 'Two Lovers.'
A custom fit character for edgy Joaquin, a laundry drone who gets taken to the cleaners in this love the one you're with sordid triangle, where a grownup romantic adventure is the same as running away from home.
Joaquin Phoenix is bruised, raw ... and miscast in the otherwise compelling Two Lovers
A moving ode to loneliness and regret, chockablock with sensualist and observational grace notes.
The film never feels dark or gloom-laden. The performances are so sensitive, so convincing, that we are drawn inescapably into a real world of pain and solace.
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