For director James Gray, Two Lovers marks a departure from his usual crime fare. His previous films, while often skillfully directed in individual scenes, always fell short of completely winning me over due to a constant, overambitious sense of plot crowding. But somehow his shift to observe the matters of a love triangle has freed him from that and allowed him to look more intently than most recent films in the romance genre. Based on this movie, he and Phoenix, who has now collaborated on three of the director's four movies, could have made even more interesting character pieces if the latter had not decided to give up his acting in favor of his hop-hop rap phase. Well, even Sean Penn had said that he wished to quit acting before and hopefully Phoenix will return to his serious acting roots again.
Bottom line: Well worth seeing.
Article comments