James Gray
Two Lovers

James Gray is quite the talent, perhaps one of the best "young rising stars" in American cinema. His debut "Little Odessa" was interesting, and he has maintained the quality of his work steadily over the years. He gained quite a bit of notoriety starting from 2007 with the thriller/police drama "We Own the Night," where Gray directed actors such as Robert Duvall, Mark Wahlberg, and Joaquin Phoenix, a true "fetish actor", already present in the previous "The Yards" and subsequently in "Two Lovers" and "The Immigrant," a film expected to release in Italy in the coming months.

This often happens to the New York filmmaker: tackling complex, profoundly moral dramas that explore human behavior, the sedimentation of feelings, and how these influence individuals' daily lives. In the previous "We Own the Night," these themes were intertwined with a more action-packed plot, which did not shy away from action sequences. In "Two Lovers," Gray shifts towards "classical" cinema, relying on a script not too solid (co-written with Ric Menello) and favoring a measured pace, heavily based on the interpretations of the three main protagonists: Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix), Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), and Sandra (Vinessa Shaw).

It's evident from the title how the plot unfolds, well-played on Leonard's relationships with the two women. These can easily be defined as antithetical: Gwyneth Paltrow embodies a fragile woman, uncertain of how to act in her relationship with a married man, burdened by drug problems. Shaw, on the other hand, is a woman who has now decided to have a stable relationship, supported by a solid family background. For her, the psychological and existential difficulties of the blonde Michelle don't seem to exist. Between the two is Leonard, who has attempted suicide several times and seems to be a kind of 30-something unable to create a stable emotional life.

It's a subtle psychological and emotional game on which Gray builds his feature film: there's the fear of radically changing one's life, the difficulty of making "definitive" choices, the inability to relate. In short, everything we could define as the dilemmas of the "new millennium." These situations are perfectly captured by James Gray: his undeniable talent in handling the camera becomes especially evident in the numerous (and remarkable) close-ups, which, together with the splendid cinematography of Baca Asay, construct a film closed in on itself and visually "dark." All of this on a plot that evidently favors drama. In delving into this world, the filmmaker demonstrates his peculiarities, and the film shows us this: the significant flaw lies, however, in the characterization of the characters. While Michelle is "fragile" from the start and will continue to be throughout the film, the character played by Joaquin Phoenix (a good performance) undergoes a continuous seesaw of behavioral shifts that clash with the image Leonard presents in the first half-hour of the film, when he appears listless, almost "inept." Probably a flaw in the screenplay, hinting at a weakness also in the final part: the last minutes are probably "telegraphed," but they could have had a different impact if everything had been managed more effectively and "realistically." The fact that the protagonist so suddenly reconciles with life after a disappointment makes the entire work less believable when related to the final scenes. One could speak of a "simplistic" closure, something someone like James Gray, with his skills as a screenwriter and director, could have avoided.

In conclusion, it can be said that the dramatic tension is once again well handled by the savvy hand of James Gray. However, compared to other works, the screenplay is less effective, and its flaws become apparent. Some sudden changes in character development make "Two Lovers" less realistic. Gray explores once again the daily nature of human emotions, but he does so with less precision and conviction than usual. Nevertheless, he remains a talent to watch closely in the future.