After attempting to commit suicide jumping in the water, Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) gives up and returns to his parent´s apartment in Brooklyn. Leonard had a great disappointment with his fiancée and after a psychological treatment, he is not stable. During the night, he meets Sandra Cohen (Vinessa Shaw) in a dinner party promoted by his family to the family of Michael Cohen (Bob Ari), who wants a partnership with his father in his dry cleaning business. Later Leonard meets his new neighbor Michelle Rausch (Gwyneth Paltrow) and he immediately feels attracted to her. Leonard and Sandra have a love affair with each other, and Sandra feels in love with him. But Leonard is in love with Michelle that is in love with her married lover Ronald Blatt (Elias Koteas) that does not leave his wife and children to stay with her. How will this quartet of unrequited loves end?"Two Lovers" is a pleasant romance slightly inspired in the novel "White Night" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow have great chemistry and magnificent performances and are the reason why "Two Lovers" works so well. The supporting cast with Isabella Rossellini and Vinessa Shaw among others great actors and actresses in another plus in this film. It is impressive how time goes by and now Isabella Rossellini performs the mother of Joaquin Phoenix´s character. The plot does not have any plot point or surprising development and indeed it is quite predictable, but "Two Lovers" is worthwhile watching. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Amantes" ("Lovers")

Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) tries to kill himself and is rescued from drowning. He is depressed after breaking up with his fiancée for genetic reason. His parents (Isabella Rossellini, Moni Moshonov) set him up with their business partner's shy daughter Sandra Cohen (Vinessa Shaw). He's moved back in with his parents and working at their Brooklyn dry cleaners. He falls for neighbor Michelle Rausch (Gwyneth Paltrow) and starts pursuing her. She is wild, unattainable, and having an affair with her married co-worker Ronald Blatt (Elias Koteas).It could be better if Leonard is more appealing. Michelle toys with him like a sad little boy. It's definitely a more adult love triangle where it's not only about lust and obsession. It's also calculations, deceptions, and settling. It's complicated. I would have preferred a simpler nerdy Leonard out of his league with the impossibly beautiful Michelle. Instead, he's a sad and slightly unstable guy. This is interesting but not necessarily crowd pleasing.

James Gray directs "Two Lovers". The film is based on "White Nights", a short story by literature's glowering giant, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky's story was previously turned into "Four Nights of a Dreamer" by Robert Bresson and "White Nights" (1957) by Luchino Visconti. Though dated in some respects, both are fine films.Gray's plot? Joaquin Phoenix plays Leonard, a young man living with his parents and working in their dry cleaners shop on Coney Island. In typical Dostoyevsky fashion, Leonard is perpetually unhappy, suicidal and has suffered some traumatic incidents in his recent past. He's also a photographer.Into Leonard's life steps two women, one played by Vinessa Shaw the other by Gwyneth Paltrow. Shaw fawns over Leonard, but he's attracted to Paltrow because she, like him, represents damaged goods. The film then becomes a lesson in propinquity, like-attracting-like to both subject's detriment. Leonard and Paltrow are like a couple of enablers, two negatively affected people feeding off each other as they're dragged inexorably toward the black. Leonard then breaks free of Paltrow and opts for Shaw, the sweet-faced girl who essentially saves his life.Gray's title seems to have a double meaning, referring both to Leonard's twin romantic options, and his relationship with his mother, who worries and watches over her child, and seems to have entombed him in a womb of perpetual youth. Living in his parent's home, in a tiny bedroom, surrounded by totems of childhood, Leonard is in a state of arrested development, caught between adulthood and a scarred, traumatised childhood. Shaw offers Leonard the opportunity to grow up, to overcome his pain, whilst Mommy and Paltrow keep Leonard in a sullen solace which only cripples him further.James Gray wears his influences on his sleeves. His film channels Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty" and is heavily indebted to Luchino Visconti (Gray seems to love Visconti; his crime films reference Visconti's "Rocco and his Brothers", and a dance sequence in "Two Lovers" recalls Visconti's "White Nights"). Though it boasts fine performances and palpable atmosphere, "Two Lovers" eventually degenerates into clichés. Elsewhere actor Joaquin Phoenix is far too old for his role. Isabella Rossellini co-stars.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Searching For a Midnight Kiss", "In The City of Sylvia", "Beyond The Clouds" and the romances of Rohmer and Linklater.

In James Gray's Two Lovers, Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is torn between two women, each of whom is right for him, and wrong for him, in different ways. When we meet Leonard, he's jumping into the river in a suicide attempt; he changes his mind at the last minute, struggling to the surface and gasping for air. It's a scene that tells us much of what we need to know about Leonard: This is a man torn between the desire to end the pain in his life, and the equally strong desire to fight against it. Leonard, we come to learn, was engaged to be married, but when he and his fiancée both tested positive for the gene that carries Tay-Sachs syndrome, her family called off the engagement and she disappeared. Leonard's mother, Ruth (Isabella Rossellini), hovers protectively over her only child, trying to help him move on, while at the same time clinging to him with a fierceness that may not be in his best interest.Leonard's parents introduce him to Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of a wealthy businessman with whom Leonard's father hopes to strike a partnership. The message from Leonard's father is clear: A marriage between Leonard and Sandra would be good for the family business, and Leonard's parents would be thrilled to see their son move on from his failed engagement to a marriage with Sandra, a nice Jewish girl with whom Leonard could produce cute little Jewish grandchildren. At the same time, though, Leonard meets Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a blond, leggy shiksa goddess who's the antithesis of everything Leonard's parents desire for their son in a match.