What's striking about this particular entry in the Phoenix-as-isolated-eccentric canon is its flavour of defeated animal loneliness.

| Feb 3, 2021

Joaquin Phoenix stars-and delivers his most self-scourging performance-in James Gray's taut and melancholy Brighton Beach romance.

| Apr 14, 2020

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: A | May 6, 2011

The film never feels dark or gloom-laden. The performances are so sensitive, so convincing, that we are drawn inescapably into a real world of pain and solace.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 12, 2009

Despair and confusion are explored in Two Lovers with a rigorous, unsentimental directness that is also full of feeling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 5, 2009

Keeps a grip on you.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 5, 2009

Gray's use of the Scope screen is meticulous, and the film is much more interesting than a brief outline might suggest - but despite its qualities, Leonard's character remains rather too inaccessible.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 3, 2009

The actors, all of whom deliver compelling, low-key performances, are mere particles bouncing off each other in Gray's vast spaces and the city that consumes them.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2009

Phoenix plays that schism -- the damaged soul in a hunky body -- to perfection, so well that we overlook the logical chasm at the centre of the tale.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2009

Gray guides his strong cast to a resolution that is both surprising and entirely realistic.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2009

Gray's direction lovingly toys with images of containment and release, effectively playing out the drama in visual terms - but we never really feel it.

| Original Score: 3/6 | Mar 27, 2009

Kraditor's vacillating affections make up what could have been a frustratingly underpowered drama but for Gray's subtle, intelligent direction and Phoenix's raw performance.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 27, 2009

Everything about Leonard's Jackie-v-Marilyn dilemma is socked over with Gray's trademark sincerity, but I found it difficult to credit, and his situation, though viewed through the smoked glass of gloomy realism, is an indulgent fantasy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 27, 2009

Love is a selfish animal here, one Gray dissects coldly and perhaps too neatly - he forecloses on any chance of happiness. Still, his emotional sincerity, great gift of melancholy and unsettling use of ambient sound are still everywhere in evidence.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 27, 2009

But good acting transcends motivational lesions. Before Phoenix, especially, and his raw, real, fumbling neediness we simply say "Yes, we believe".

| Mar 27, 2009

Fine performances -- notably from Phoenix -- still don't make this an easy sell. But it is atmospheric, accomplished and intense.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 27, 2009

It never feels quite believable, though Phoenix is touching in the central role. If this really is his screen swansong - he apparently intends to pursue a musical career - then it will be the movies' loss.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 27, 2009

If Two Lovers winds up being Phoenix's last movie, at least it offers posterity incontrovertible proof that, once, he was a contender.

| Mar 13, 2009

What elevates Two Lovers beyond the mundane is the strength of the performances.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2009