Then, one night on his way home, Leonard comes across an apartment neighbor, Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who seems to be running away from someone in her apartment. Leonard offers to let her hide in his family's apartment for a little while and is instantly drawn to her feisty personality. He obviously knows who his parents would prefer and although Michelle brings out a little seen side of him when she invites him over to the dance club with her friends (which humorously shows some of Phoenix's break dancing moves), we start to see that she could potentially spell more unhealthy emotional trouble for Leonard. But he somehow seems more smitten with Michelle, perhaps because he feels he can show more of his affectionate, protective instincts around her as opposed to the other way around when he is around Sandra, who wants to share more of her own protective warmth around Leonard.
Director Gray, as he did in his past efforts, Little Odessa and We Own the Night, displays an instinctive visual feel for the Jewish neighborhood he depicts and also does not settle for obvious caricatures or clichés in familial relationships. There is no reason to doubt that both Leonard and Sandra come from loving, caring parents who have their best interests in mind. The story also avoids having the women know of each other's existence and that allows the eventual repercussions and rationale for Leonard's feelings and dilemmas to remain entirely interior and personal. That it works so well is largely due to Phoenix's nuanced portrayal of this withdrawn and yet gentle character who may be unwise in letting his romantic longing be swayed by his urge to avoid admitting his problems rather than face them.
Besides Phoenix's anchoring performance, the two actresses playing his potential love interests also deliver fine work playing against their usual types, even though Vinessa Shaw ends up getting the shorter end of the stick. Gwyneth Paltrow delivers some of her strongest work as a woman who is probably more manipulative and sneakily enabling of Leonard's problems than meets the eye but with enough of a dose of naiveté to evade admitting that even to herself. I only wish that Shaw was afforded the same amount of complexity and that Gray and his co-writer Ric Menello wrote her to move beyond the obligatory and default nice girl that the family approves of. Isabella Rosselini, on the other hand, stands out among the parental figures as she has a subtle, crucial scene that reveals either a surprising trust and understanding in her son or a firm belief that her motherly patience with him will eventually be justified in the end. I should also mention the always reliable Elias Koteas who is in just two scenes in the film but establishes a key flesh-and-blood presence that I will leave you to discover.
Article comments