Two lovers by James Gray

A sentimental film by James Gray? After "the night is ours" a brilliant thriller, inventive and moving, a sentimental film?

The story is apparently simple : a man is torn between two women he meets for the first time on the same day: a nice, strong brunette that his parents would like him to marry, as their jewish families fit together, and the two shops could be fusioned, and the tall, long haired blond girl that has just appeared in his building.

But nothing is really simple.. Because the man  comes out of hospital, where he went after a tentative of suicide, and on the day he meets the two women, he's just tried to kill himself again...

Fragile, extremely fragile, this man, and the acting of Joaquim Phoenix, once more, is incredible! He can express anything, he can be tortured, ill at ease in a posh Manhattan restaurant, or funny.. He can play the star on the dance floor, or cry on the roof in Brighton Beach, every single move is perfect.

All the actors are good as well, with a special mention to Isabella Rossellini in the part of the Jewish mother.

What makes  this film something special, apart from Joaquim Phoenix, is the filming. Tense,refined.

James Gray loves the night, the rain, the gray skies. The artificial light rather than the real light.

Some scenes are extremely arty, like the ones in the building, where Joaquim  Phoenix observes Gwyneth Paltrow from his window, she seems to be like Juliet on her balcony and he is Romeo trying to seduce her from the ground, and she appears in a yellow light, behind her window like in a Flemish painting, surrounded by  red bricks.

All the details in every scene seem to have a meaning, a talent, they are there to help you understand the situation. This film reaches absolute visual perfection.

And the scenes on the roof are pure drama. We know that he could suicide by just jumping from there, and it gives the scenes an incredible tension.

New York is around, above, everywhere... From Brighton Beach to Manhattan, we know that he doesn't belong to the society the blonde girl makes him glimpse at. He discovers opera, and seduces the brunette while listening to it, which is in fact as if he was seducing the blonde, as she is the one who loves that sort of music...

So that finally, what seemed at first like a sentimental movie is extremely complex and most of all perfectly refined in the scenery, the dialogues, the acting.

A beautiful film.