Review: Phoenix Flies Low In Film Swan Song

'Two Lovers' (R)(out of four)

Touted as Joaquin Phoenix's swan song before embarking on a self-imposed retirement to begin a hip-hop career, "Two Lovers" is a "lovely movie," as David Letterman so politely said during Phoenix's oddball appearance on the late-night talk show program.

Although Letterman said it was a "fine piece of work," some might beg to differ. For a swan song, Phoenix is more of an ugly duckling in the film. He plays Leonard Kraditor, a 30-something man with a slew of problems. We know he's on some type of mood altering medication -- and that perhaps he's just come back to stay at his parents' after being "away," most likely in a psych ward.

When the film opens, he's tried to kill himself in Sheepshead Bay. He's carrying dry cleaning after coming home from working in the family business his father owns, which gets swept away during the calamity.

As the movie unfolds, it is clear why Leonard is suicidal. The insular world of Brighton Beach, where he lives with his parents, is a dull place. Among Yiddish sayings and old photographs, it is a bit too confining for the eccentric Leonard. Yet, his destiny is laid out before him as his father, Reuben (sensitively played by Moni Monoshov), believes that the best thing he can do for his son is sell the dry cleaning business to a larger firm, owned by a Jewish businessman (Michael Cohen). That way Leonard will have "health insurance," a nod to his son's chronic mental illness.

Isabella Rossellini plays Leonard's mother, and while it's difficult to see the sexy actress from "Blue Velvet" be comfortable in her aging skin, she is able to captivatingly portray the only woman that truly understands Leonard.

Then there are the new women who enter Leonard's life during our two-hour glimpse into this slice of life. The Jewish businessman's daughter, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), would make the perfect companion for Leonard, and the two could run the dry cleaning businesses and perpetuate the Brooklyn legacy of both families. That is if the parents have their way.

Then there's Michelle (the always beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow), who moves in to the apartment upstairs, offering intrigue and mystery into Leonard's otherwise confusing yet mundane existence.

We learn through to Sandra that he fell into his deep depression after his engagement to his longtime girlfriend was broken off when a marriage blood test revealed that the two were biologically incompatible. Unfortunately predictable, we can see it coming: Leonard will begin another downward spiral by falling for Michelle, while the parents push him to embrace the sanity of Sandra.

If you believe you've heard this story before, it's been played out again and again. "Two Lovers" is loosely based on the Dostoevsky short story, "White Nights," with some other sources tossed in. Phoenix brings little depth to the role and Paltrow doesn't quite pull off believability in others who describe Michelle to Leonard as a troubled woman with a drug problem. Here, she's just entirely too needy and it's difficult to imagine she'd glob onto her across-the-courtyard neighbor in such short order.

However, there are reasons to keep your eye on "Two Lovers." It's definitely not the paper thin script, or the fact that the actors appear to be sleepwalking through their roles, but the sensitivity that writer/director James Gray frames his subjects, from his actors to his landscapes.

A close-up of dinner food and Kosher pickles, the cold air when Michelle asks Leonard for the umpteenth time to meet her on the rooftop so she can air her problems to him, and the somberness of a subway ride from Brighton Beach to 57th Street, all take on the color palette of a stark painting.

"Two Lovers" shines in its art, not in the public relations maneuvers of a catatonic lead actor making the talk show circuit. As for Phoenix, we most likely haven't seen the last of him, and what a better way to get people to come out and see your movie then to bare your knuckles, grow a beard and act incoherent. That's called Hollywood buzz.