FILM: Two Lovers

This evening we subjected ourselves to the torturous romantic drama Two Lovers. Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow both gave great performances as wrecking balls of disfunctionality that ruin each other and those around them. But do I really want to watch that? If this film has a lesson to offer, it is that when someone says "I love you because I feel like I really know you", they don't really know you at all, and you should run the other way. When Leonard (Phoenix) and Michelle (Paltrow) first realize that their windows are opposite each other, it's a cute romantic New York moment. But before long, Leonard's watching her from his window verges into psycho-stalker creepy. Operatic arias haunt the film, mostly from Cavalleria Rusticana (appropriate enough for the broken love triangles, or rather, quadrilaterals), giving an operatic gravitas to these messed-up souls and their psycho-drama, but the writers should have consulted Marta Domingo for an alternate ending in the style of La Rondine. What happened instead was really rather incredible and appalling.