TWO LOVERS

USA| 2008 | 35mm | 110 min.
Director: James Gray
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Gwynneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw
Phoenix delivers a quietly devastating performance as Leonard, a melancholic Brooklyn man torn between the promise of a stable future with the kind-hearted Sandra (Shaw) and his consuming obsession with his enigmatic neighbor Michelle (Paltrow). An American reimagining of Dostoevsky’s White Nights, director Gray (Paper Tiger, We Own the Night) transforms the classic tale of unrequited love into a lived-in, authentic portrait of contemporary New Yorkers yearning for human connection. “A film of unusual perception, played at perfect pitch by Phoenix, Shaw, Paltrow and the other actors…It is calm and mature” (Roger Ebert).