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O que é melhor: um bom roteiro com uma fraca produção, ou um roteiro fraco com uma boa produção? Dirigido por James Gray, “Amantes” é um filme que agrada, mas não encanta nem surpreende, promete mais do que oferece, em termos de drama. Com um elenco de primeira linha e boas interpretações, o filme vale pela bela fotografia, pela trilha sonora agradável, pela direção de arte impecável. Mas não é imperdível.

Um filme simples, tratando das frustrações no campo do amor, sem fugir dos clichês e esbarrando às vezes na obviedade das soluções. Na luta entre razão e emoção que se trava, o diretor não reserva surpresas sobre o vencedor.

É a história de Leonard Kraditor (Joaquim Phoenix), um judeu bipolar depressivo e potencialmente suicida, com pouco mais de 30 anos, morando com os pais em Nova Iorque. Depois de um período de desilusão com o fim de um relacionamento, ele conhece quase ao mesmo tempo duas mulheres. Seus pais querem que ele se case com a filha de um amigo, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw) e ele vai se aproximando dela, ao mesmo tempo em que surge Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), uma vizinha recém chegada, viciada em drogas e apaixonada por Ronald Blatt (Elias Koteas), homem rico, casado e que banca suas despesas.

As indecisões de Leonard entre a mulher que o ama “de graça” e a mulher confusa que apenas “tira” dele, porque o toma como confidente e apoio, somado ao seu medo de novas frustrações, são o foco da história. Afável no trado com as duas, ao mesmo tempo em que é mais evasivo com Sandra, é totalmente solicito com Michelle. Sua mãe, Ruth Kraditor (Isabella Rossellini), protetora e preocupada, apenas o observa e adivinha seu drama.

E na verdade o que mais me incomodou mesmo é que o longa parece não obedecer o tempo que o gênero lhe pede. É um drama onde a maioria das cenas não se prolongam como deveriam. Muitos dos diálogos não se amarram, e a montagem parece ter sido feita para um filme de ação, tamanha é a mudança de planos e de cortes.

Com direção e roteiro de James Gray, o filme é mais melancólico do que envolvente, mais sombrio do que intenso, revelando a solidão amarga de um protagonista limitado e excluído pela doença mental. Se Amantes se confirmar como o último trabalho de Joaquin Phoenix no cinema, o ator fechou a carreira com chave de ouro.

MAJOR SPOILERS

This movie made me feel really sad although I could see where it was going to go, which also made me feel relief, the same way one would feel if they were as bi-polar as Joaquin Phoenix’s character Leonard. Throughout the film, Leonard switches back and forth between his emotions of high and low energy, which shows him as a damaged and confused person who has had a failed relationship that makes him pessimistic about what will happen next. The way he keeps jumping at the moments he meets the two women – Sandra (Vanessa Shaw) and Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) – on two different occasions, there is a desperation in him to connect with women for how little he’s known them that his moments of happiness are rushed attempts to escape from his depression.

The two women are different in their own ways, which embodies Leonard’s own struggles with his two-sided personality. Sandra is the nice and gentle woman with a successful nuclear family who remains stable and non-judgmental around Leonard, whereas Michelle is the more emotionally broken woman who lives alone and is tense about her relationship with a married man. Given how he meets these two women close within the same time frame, it’s a mad rush of adrenaline as he obsesses of meeting them, yet he spends a good chunk of time with Michelle as he gradually sees her change from a fun-loving gal to a sobbing loner who needs a friend. The way they connect makes them appear as equals in that they are both dealing with emotional problems, which makes the chemistry between Phoenix and Paltrow stirring. At the same time, there is hardly any sign that this relationship could work out given that they are both people in need of help and that failing relationships are a danger to their well-being.

In that case, it seems more rational that Leonard should go with Sandra because of her stability and kindness towards him, regardless of his unusual behavior. Yet he keeps growing desperate about Michelle the more she sobs about her boyfriend not leaving his wife and clinging to him for help, until he finally says he wants to go with her to San Francisco in the hope that it will be better for them both. As excited as he is, we can see in Michelle’s face how reluctant she appears, even when they both have sex on the rooftop. When she happily calls him and says she will go with him, there is still an unease in that they might not be thinking carefully about their choices and that this is just a racy attempt to escape from the problems they have in New York that could only reoccur in San Francisco. When Leonard gets very serious and buys airline tickets and an engagement ring for Michelle, he really is going in over his head, despite how happy he may be about it, especially after he goes to a meeting with Sandra’s father to hear about a merger with his father’s company for the hope of a successful future. The fact that he’s keeping secrets under the table and goes to his parents New Years Party while preparing to sneak out and run away with Michelle makes it all the more uneasy that he’s going to leave his family so suddenly without explanation and in the middle of an important business affair that could affect them all. However, once he heads down the stairs, his mother (Isabella Rossellini) catches him, but doesn’t discourage him. Instead, in the most heartbreaking moment, she hugs him and tearfully wishes him happiness, which shows how much she has loved and cared for him, but at the same time there is worry he’s making the wrong and hasty decision. At the same time, I could feel anxious to see him slip out and wait for Michelle to come down to join him, but the longer it takes for her to show up, it means that this escape plan isn’t going to go as he hopes. Once she does come down and says that her boyfriend has decided to leave his wife and stay with her, there is a sadness and regret in her face, but it’s clear she feels it’s necessary for both their sakes. As before, Leonard is heartbroken by this and is driven to contemplate suicide as he stands on the cold beach, until he looks at a glove from Sandra and realizes that there is someone back there who does care about him, even though he may not be deeply in love with her.

The decision he makes to steer away from suicide and go back to the party into Sandra’s arms may seem radical, but it’s the decision he’s made where he can feel safe and secure in a life where he will have good work and a loving partner. Rather than run away with an equally depressed woman or killing himself to escape his problems, his choice to stay where he is with his parents who have cared for him and a woman who also cares for him is a way that he can confront his problems. Whether or not he will be happy with his new life is the hard question, but the fact that he’s once again avoided suicide and is in the company of loved ones is his way of remaining stable with what is right in front of him. For me, it seemed the most safest way for his life to go rather than for him to run away, which is what made me relieved that the film didn’t explode into a glamorized story of a happily-ever-after romance while also making me sad about all that he and Paltrow go through in this film. While they are characters in need of love, they also are in need of help and sanity, which makes it hard for them to get away with their fairy tale ideas and leaves their fates uncertain. It made it feel true to life and that there are not always sure answers of how people can turn their lives around when they are not entirely wise and healthy to know what will be the most fulfilling with the brick walls that come their way.

Em um ano cheio de superproduções, efeitos especiais incríveis, muito 3D e comédias boca-suja, é delicioso ser surpreendido por um drama como Amantes (Two Lovers, 2008). Um filme simples, despretensioso e excepcional.

Dirigido de maneira muito elegante por James Gray (do bom Os Donos da Noite), Amantes mostra as indecisões de Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix, excepcional), um solteiro chegando na meia-idade, que foi deixado pela noiva e, por isso, ainda vive com os pais. Após uma tentativa frustrada de suicídio, duas mulheres, diferentes entre si, surgem em sua vida: Sandra (Vinessa Shaw) é quase perfeita, o par ideal para ele manter seu estilinho de vida até o fim de seus dias; enquanto Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), sua nova vizinha, é extrovertida e misteriosa, argumento perfeito para uma fuga – sua janela para o mundo.

Assistimos ao desenrolar dessa história através dos olhos de uma câmera passiva, quase ausente (exceto nas cenas em que vemos Leonard ansioso em seu quarto, quando ela perde sua estabilidade e torna-se inquieta, como o personagem) e ao som de uma trilha sonora delicada, que entende com precisão seu papel na trama.

A direção de arte é outro trunfo de Amantes. Basta olhar o antiquado apartamento onde Leonard vive: observe nos papéis de parede que compõem a sala, nos móveis rústicos, nos porta-retratos, no aquário em seu quarto, na estante cheia de livros. Afinal, estamos diante de uma família conservadora, educada, que tem à frente uma mãe superprotetora e econômica nas palavras – daquelas em que só um olhar basta.

E que belo trabalho faz a atriz Isabella Rossellini. Quando a vemos em cena ao lado de Joaquin Phoenix, somos tomados por sentimentos diversos – pena, raiva, compaixão – e percebemos o quão poderoso é esse filme. Vale lembrar que Gwyneth Paltrow entrega a melhor interpretação de sua carreira. Culpa do Sr. James Gray, talentoso diretor que abusa do poder das sutilezas (as sequências no terraço dizem muito mais do que aparentam, bem como a cena do restaurante, em que sofremos junto com Leonard ao vermos uma indelicada mão masculina acariciar o rosto de Michelle).

Tudo isso, aliado à escura fotografia (tão nublada quanto o inverno nova-iorquino) faz de Amantes um filme muito verdadeiro e natural. Uma pequena obra-prima que merece ser vista, revista e muito apreciada.

Une soumission sans échappatoire – 04/05/2009

Après nous avoir servi des polars crépusculaires, James Gray s’attaque aux histoires d’amour et signe un film remarquable. Remarquable car cette romance noire et poisseuse, d’un homme qui tente d’échapper à la pesanteur de son destin, est servi par une caméra et une lumière magnifique, un scénario limpide et un acteur flamboyant. Le récit d’une soumission à sa condition, sans échappatoire. Le récit d’un amour fou comme une maladie. Puissant.

Some would say that this is an average movie with totally predictable story but this is basically a story about all of us, going through series of ups/downs, dissapointments, and various emotional conditions in our lives.

Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix), thorned between his family, his job, and two girlfriends, in one moment decides to leave all behind and go to San Francisco with Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow). In the end Leonard is being left by Michelle (the girlfriend who’s he actually in love with), and he comes back home to Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of his parents’ business associates.

A subtle and real story about day-to-day life situations, relations between family and love, uncertainty of love, commitment, and wishes & desires. Astonishing performance from Joaquin Phoenix, and a fine one by Gwyneth Paltrow. Subtle realism, true emotions, true love and a man who’s not afraid to express that love, but in the end it’s doesn’t always end like we imagined it and hoped for.

Two Lovers is a romantic drama film, remaking of Luchino Visconti’s Le Notti Bianche, which in turn is based on Dostoevsky’s short story, “White Nights.”

An inspirational piece of work, and a definitely must see.

Had James Gray made this film in French it would’ve been hailed worldwide as our bravest new love story. The simplicity of the story and its narrative twists are risen to complex heights by the subtle and romantic ways they combine themselves. Gray has proven he’s a master of sound above all and those sounds marry with the image and seep into my heart. No amount of clever Hollywood-esque chit chat or elaborate camerawork can resonate as profoundly as deeply felt realism. This is a great work.

Leave it to Joaquin Phoenix to quit the business after giving his finest performance to date. The role of Leonard Kraditor in James Gray’s Two Lovers is an amazing turn from someone that has been usually relegated to the cool, confident leading man. Yes, I know, his portrayal of Johnny Cash had its moments of vulnerability, but the closest character I can compare this to would be Lucius Hunt from The Village, a shy, kind-hearted soul in love, yet unable to quite find his voice. Never in a million years would I have thought that would be so when looking at the Cannes poster for this film, horribly Photoshopped to include a suave Phoenix between two glam shots of costars Vinessa Shaw and Gwyneth Paltrow. In what could be the worst marketing material item of the year, it is the main reason I had no interest whatsoever to check this film out, (the attached final onesheet does much better). Only when I started hearing the buzz and eventually saw it on many end of year lists did I decide to pop it in. All the praise is warranted for both the lead and the movie itself; this is a very strong drama dealing with the pains of life and the hope for happiness despite our propensity to look right by it.

Phoenix’s Leonard is a thirty-something New Yorker who has recently broken up with his fiancé and moved back home to his parents’ apartment. Our introduction to his character is with an ‘accidental’ fall into the Bay and eventual surfacing where a group of good Samaritans help him remove the water from his lungs. Only when he arrives home and his mother, (a really nice turn from Isabella Rossellini), whispers to her husband that she thinks “he tried it again” do we comprehend the stifling depression that he has. His demeanor is awkward and unsure—confidence is greatly lacking—as he must meet a girl his family has maneuvered over for dinner right after his mid-day swim. It is very refreshing to watch him look at the floor, mumble his way through conversation, and fumble through the dinner full of innocence. He is a young child, always being watched by his parents closely as they prod him to open up and find the happiness he lost when his engagement was broken off. Leonard is on medication and slightly off-kilter, lending him an appearance of inexperienced youth that Shaw’s Sandra finds cute and appealing, like a little dog needing to be taken care of.

Soon, though, Leonard takes on another persona completely; one trying to be cooler than he has in sometime, reaching back to happier days of fun and excitement. It is all precipitated by his meeting a beautiful neighbor, Paltrow’s Michelle, of whom he becomes fast friends with. Becoming self-conscious and highly aware that she is a woman to be coveted, we soon see his walk inherit a hitch in its step, his words become spiced with vulgarities, and his attitude morphing into one devoid of inhibitions. When he joins Michelle and her friends for an evening of clubbing, you can’t help but laugh at his confidence in telling stories, rapping, and even break dancing to impress and cut loose. So, we become familiar with the two sides of his bi-polar nature, two worlds separated by the woman he loves in each. The issue soon becomes how he will be able to cope with this double life after having no one but his solitude to take up his time for so long. One has the security of a prosperous father about to merge companies with his own Dad, completely in love with this broken man on the mend, and the other is a wild card with substance abuse in her past and a boyfriend who is married with a son, yet someone Leonard has fallen for.

The question that the film drives to answer is whether the duplicitous lifestyle will be too much for him to bear, eventually hurting him so heavily that he spirals back into the suicidal tendencies he literally just left behind. Leonard is a complicated fellow that is not easily understood. One could say he creates his own troubles by attaching himself so quickly to anyone that shows some sign of affection, but you must understand the psychological issues he struggles with. Only his mother’s eyes are truly open to her son’s plight, seeing his strange and eccentric activities, yet never judging or scolding. She has to believe that he will find his way or that he’ll find his way back to her if he leaves and is hurt again. The performance is fully realized, creating this man with issues an audience can relate to and a love that cannot seem to find a home to rest. One could say Sandra is the safe answer to his troubles, but that is doing her a disservice, just as saying Michelle is the high-adrenaline fantasy would belittle her own problems and naivety in love.

All three of these characters are in dire need of answers. The triangle Phoenix constructs has been set up to inevitably hurt one, if not all, of the trio when the end is finally reached. They may have stereotypical issues, but none come across as clichéd due to the wonderful performances. Paltrow branches out and shows a vulnerability herself that you sometimes forget she can pull off while Shaw is gorgeous in her own desire to be needed, opening herself up to be loved while risking a devastating letdown that only we the audience can anticipate coming. James Gray has given these two actresses the room and material to sink their teeth into and complement his muse Phoenix. So many small moments resonate and stay with you; the direction is strong and non-invasive, letting the actors speak for themselves. And the ending is so real in its messiness, setting a chain of events in motion, making you question whether motives are pure or all that is left. Watching Phoenix enter the room and walk across with only music playing, drowning out all other sound, is a great sequence that culminates in a brief shot of Joaquin peering into the camera, right at us. It’s a questioning glare that brings us in as part of his decision, either leaving the viewer with a sense of joy or anger depending on his/her interpretation of what has transpired.

Two Lovers 9/10

http://jaredmobarakreviews.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/two-lovers/

A departure for Gray, lacking in the gangster grit of his first three films, but yet a perfect extension of his previous film, We Own the Night. That film expressed the dueling impetuses of Joaquin Phoenix’s life and here as well, but where Night used the decadence and moral ambiguity of living on the cusp of criminality and the blue collar, morally stringent life of a cop, Two Lovers uses two differing potential lovers, one socially acceptable, genteel and shy and the other confused, dangerous and alluring.

An early scene gives us an indication into Phoenix’s character and his emotional and social immaturity; at a dinner event, orchestrated to essentially have Phoenix’s Leonard meet Vinessa Shaw’s Sandra (the good girl), Phoenix is obviously uncomfortable around all the “grown ups,” but with Sandra’s younger brother he is at ease and playfully shows the boy a trick with a spoon. Similarly later on at his job (he works for his dad’s dry cleaners), we see his goofing around and later in the same scene bored and irreverently carrying the clothes to the customer. Even more is the opening scene of clumsily attempted suicide in which he changes his mind. Leonard’s psyche is, as the narrative structure suggests, bi-polar and fractured, spawned as we learn by an engagement that fell through.

Such as it is then that when Gwyneth Paltrow’s Michelle (the bad girl) enters his life, he sees a chance to escape from the pre-arranged social order expected of him. Their first foray together has her doing some ecstasy while he looks on, at first a little disturbed then gradually intrigued. Like a child or an innocent told he cannot have the forbidden candy, Leonard can’t help himself. The club scene is starkly contrasted with the muted interiors of his parent’s home and in a key moment the film slyly has Leonard get locked out of the club and in a moment of likely divine foreshadowing, told he is not allowed back in.

Michelle is of course, damaged goods so to speak and is involved with a married man. The scenes between her and her man Ronald (Elias Koteas) are the most perfunctory in the film, but that feels about right. Koteas is an intruder into this world between the two characters and his presence never feels anything less than uncomfortable within the framework. Leonard has become obsessed with Michelle and Sandra, despite their surprisingly poignant sexual encounter (though the contrast between this and the rooftop fuck between Leonard and Michelle is thematically taut), is being pushed out of the picture.

Interestingly though, in looking back Leomard is never more than a spectator to Michelle’s story. Koteas’ character ultimately pulls the strongs at every turn despite his lack of screen presence. She spurns Leonard at the club because of her relationship; she needs Leonard to rescue her when Ronald is out of town; she gives in to Leonard as a rebound of her break up with Ronald; finally she breaks Leonard’s heart because Ronald has changed his. Contrast this with Sandra who despite the original premise wanted to meet Leonard, who buys him a present and who wants him and understands him (she sees his scars and she looks at his pictures to understand what he lacks). Ultimately I think Gray shows there is only one mutual love in this film and everything else is just noise, confusion and the product of an allure too powerful to see the strings.

Such it is then that I do not see the ending as unhappy, or at least certainly not trapping Leonard in the same overwhelming shroud of darkness and contentedness that We Own the Night trapped Phoenix’s character. I think of Leonard standing on the precipice of suicide and loss (standing on the shores of the water and for leonard and we see in the opening scene, water = suicide) and then seeing the glove Sandra had given him. It was a gift that may seem inconsequential, but for Leonard it can be seen as a sign of embrace and a concern for his well-being. It goes straight to the heart of his relationship with his caring and attentive mother (a superb Isabella Rossellini) and that distractions may seem appealing and an escape from our life, but some things are eternal and nurturing. Gray ultimately seems to posit the very same ideals as a film as disparate as Hillcoat’s The Proposition that change and progress aren’t always pretty or neat, and may in the moment seem a defeat, but in the end a calming and evolution can occur. For all of Leonard’s doubt, there is a resounding beacon of hope in that final image.

O mundo provavelmente será muito injusto com Amantes. E a culpa é justamente de seu protagonista. A entrevista de Joaquin Phoenix a David Letterman, em que o ator – em estado estranhíssimo, grotescamente barbado – afirma que deixará o cinema para se dedicar ao rap, é um dos maiores hits dos últimos meses, mas, verdade ou mentira, ofereceu uma visibilidade torta ao filme porque ganhou ares de piada e contornos de trapaça. E isso é tudo o que o cinema de James Gray não é. E essa é toda a atenção que Amantes não precisa.

Gray talvez seja o cineasta que mais me lembra John Cassavetes hoje em dia. É difícil dizer sobre o quê exatamente são seus filmes. Os nós da vida, talvez. Amantes não é diferente. Embora o título ofereça uma expectativa direta, Gray não tem intenção alguma de levá-la a cabo e trabalha com sua própria velocidade, num trabalho completamente particular de composição de cenas, quase todas anti-climáticas, como o primeiro encontro entre Joaquin Phoenix e Gwyneth Paltrow. Mesmo assim, em nenhum momento, o filme não deixa de mostrar o cineasta romântico de Os Donos da Noite (We Own the Night, 2007).

O romantismo de Gray está não no objeto, mas no caminho até ele. Quando filma seus personagens em Amantes, o cineasta mais nos confunde sobre suas intenções e comportamentos do que nos dá informações sobre eles, tanto na maneira de jogá-los no mundo – há momentos em que a câmera parece ter vida própria, ultrapassando o puro recorte – quanto na de registrar seus afetos. É dessa maneira que todos ganham uma humanização raríssima no cinema de hoje em dia. É difícil defini-los, muito menos julgá-los ou culpá-los, mas entendê-los, por outro lado, torna-se uma arte mais fácil.

Quando Leonard diz que ama Michelle, ele está provavelmente sendo tão sincero como quando beija Sandra pela primeira vez porque nada é tão simples assim nos filmes de Gray. Leonard, de certa forma, catalisa a complexidade de como o diretor enxerga o mundo. Embora nunca se afaste das vizinhanças, o personagem vaga pelo mundo após ser tirado do prumo e se dedica agora a buscar trilhos mais uma vez. Joaquin Phoenix, o mesmo culpado por toda a publicidade equivocada para o filme, é, no entanto, o maior suporte de Gray. Sem ele, Leonard provavelmente não seria tão complexo, tão bipolar no melhor sentido do termo. É a interpretação Phoenix que dá estofo a Leonard e que faz Amantes ser o filme gigante que é.

Chico Fireman
http://www.interney.net/blogs/filmesdochico/

This was easily one of my favourite films of the year (seen as a 2009 DVD release). Joaquin Phoenix nailed the role of “Leonard” without a false note in his portrayal of a man badly bruised by love and setting himself up for another ‘bashing’ that looks about to finish him off once and for all. But in the end, he is saved by the love of a good woman! If this truly is Phoenix’s last film, then he went out a winner; in fact, everyone is a winner in this film because of him.