Two Lovers (2008)

Director:

James Gray

Writers (WGA):

James Gray (written by) &
Ric Menello (written by)

Release Date:

19 November 2008 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Sometimes we leave everything to find ourselves.

Plot:

A Brooklyn-set romantic drama about a bachelor (Phoenix) torn between the family friend his parents wish he would marry and his beautiful but volatile new neighbor.

Plot Keywords:

Married Man | Jewish | Love | Hiding | Jewish Mother

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Joaquin Phoenix	...	Leonard Kraditor
Gwyneth Paltrow	...	Michelle Rausch
Vinessa Shaw	...	Sandra Cohen
Moni Moshonov	...	Reuben Kraditor
Isabella Rossellini	...	Ruth Kraditor
John Ortiz	...	Jose Cordero
Bob Ari	...	Michael Cohen
Julie Budd	...	Carol Cohen
Elias Koteas	...	Ronald Blatt
Shiran Nicholson	...	DJ Juice
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Cale	...	Jeweler
Kathryn Gerhardt	...	New Year's Eve Party Guest #3
Nick Gillie	...	Livery Driver
Carmen M. Herlihy
Samantha Ivers	...	Stephanie
Anne Joyce	...	Leonard's ex-fiance
Mari Koda	...	Popping Dancer
RJ Konner	...	Upscale Opera Guest
Evan Lewis	...	Uncle
Marion McCorry	...	Nurse
David Ross	...	Waiter
Jeanine Serralles	...	Dayna
Jose Edwin Soto
Uzimann	...	Cab Driver
Elliot Villar	...	Bystander
Mark Vincent	...	Ronald's driver
Craig Walker
Franco Bulaon	...	Man Kissing Girl (uncredited)
Luis Dalmasy Jr.	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Bianca Giancoli	...	Waitress (uncredited)
Andrew Ginsburg	...	Rescue worker (uncredited)
Christy Bella Joiner	...	Waitress (uncredited)
Doug Wright	...	Maitre 'D (uncredited)

Directed by
James Gray

Writing credits (WGA)
James Gray		(written by) &
Ric Menello		(written by) (as Richard Menello)

Produced by
Marc Butan	....	executive producer
Mark Cuban	....	executive producer
Donna Gigliotti	....	producer
James Gray	....	producer
Anthony Katagas	....	producer
Agnès Mentre	....	executive producer
Couper Samuelson	....	co-producer
Mike Upton	....	co-producer
Todd Wagner	....	executive producer

Cinematography by
Joaquín Baca-Asay

Film Editing by
John Axelrad

Casting by
Douglas Aibel

Production Design by
Happy Massee

Art Direction by
Marc Benacerraf
Peter Zumba

Set Decoration by
Carol Silverman

Costume Design by
Michael Clancy

Makeup Department
LuAnn Claps	....	makeup department head
Jorjee Douglas	....	makeup artist: Gwyneth Paltrow
Jorjee Douglas	....	personal makeup artist

Production Management
Anthony Katagas	....	unit production manager
Jamey Pryde	....	post production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lauren Guilmartin	....	second second assistant director (as Lauren Kells Guilmartin)
Jason Hightower	....	dga trainee
Francisco Ortiz	....	second assistant director
Doug Torres	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Leni Calas	....	property master
Gabu Camilo	....	props
John J. Ciccimarro	....	construction coordinator
Eddie DeCurtis	....	set dresser
Peter DeCurtis	....	leadman
Mandie DeMeskey	....	assistant property master
Edward R. Geller	....	best boy construction grip
Theresa Gonzalez	....	scenic industrial
Mario Herrera	....	charge scenic artist
Michael Kall	....	key carpenter
Mike Kearns	....	carpenter foreman
Michael Lee Nirenberg	....	painter
Jaime Phelps	....	assistant art department coordinator
Heather Prendergast	....	assistant set decorator
Heather Prendergast	....	set decorating shopper
Kevin L. Raper	....	graphic artist

Sound Department
Chris Barron	....	digital transferer (as Christopher Barron)
Gregg Baxter	....	supervising adr editor
Steve Bissinger	....	sound effects editor
Frank Clary	....	foley recordist
John Countryman	....	digital transferer
Paul Drenning	....	adr mixer
Sean England	....	foley mixer
Will Files	....	sound effects editor (as William Files)
Kim Foscato	....	dialogue editor
Ivan Fritz	....	digital editorial services
Kyle Gray	....	assistant sound editor
Tom Johnson	....	sound re-recording mixer
Scott R. Lewis	....	sound recordist
Zach Martin	....	sound mix technician
Marilyn McCoppen	....	dialogue editor
Douglas Murray	....	sound designer
Douglas Murray	....	supervising sound editor
Tom Nelson	....	production sound mixer
Egor Panchenko	....	ProTools playback mixer
Ronald G. Roumas	....	re-recordist
Kent Sparling	....	sound re-recording mixer
Dennie Thorpe	....	foley artist
Tami Treadwell	....	adr recordist

Special Effects by
Drew Jiritano	....	special effects
Andrew Mortelliti	....	special effects foreman

Visual Effects by
J. Cody Baker	....	digital intermediate assistant (as James Cody Baker)
Michael Boggs	....	scanning manager
Rob Doolittle	....	visual effects artist
James Eberle	....	visual effects artist
Gavin Miljkovich	....	visual effects coordinator
David Neuberger	....	visual effects artist (as Dave Neuberger)
Alex Romano	....	visual effects artist

Stunts
Chris Barnes	....	marine coordinator
Bob Colletti	....	stunt double: Joaquin Phoenix
Roy Farfel	....	stunt coordinator
Donald John Hewitt	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
James Boniece	....	key rigging grip
Paul Candrilli	....	best boy grip
John Clifford	....	still photographer
Chris Drechsler	....	lighting technician
David Elwell	....	lighting technician
Craig Haagensen	....	camera operator
Craig Haagensen	....	director of photography: second unit
David Knox	....	underwater director of photography
Michael A. Leo	....	house electrician
Mitchell Andrew Lillian	....	key grip
Nathan Gabriel Lopez	....	additional camera loader
Kevin Lowry	....	grip
William MacGhee	....	generator operator: basecamp
Rick Marroquin	....	dolly grip
Sean McCardell	....	lighting technician
Michael A. McFadden	....	rigging grip best boy
Doug Meils	....	additional rigging electric
Wayne Paull	....	camera operator: "b" camera
Edward Read	....	light board programmer
Lance Rieck	....	scorpio head technician
Frank Rinato	....	assistant camera
Andrew D. Schwartz	....	still photographer
Fernando Vallejo	....	assistant to director of photography
Alexis van Kersen Li	....	film loader
John Velez	....	gaffer

Casting Department
Henry Russell Bergstein	....	casting associate
Sophia M. Costas	....	extras casting
Barbara Harris	....	adr voice casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Barrett Hong	....	key costumer
Alethea McElroy	....	additional costumer
Cassidy Mosher	....	set costumer
Laura Steinman	....	costume supervisor
Eli Weiss	....	wardrobe production assistant

Editorial Department
J. Cody Baker	....	digital intermediate assistant (as James Cody Baker)
Tom Cross	....	additional editor
Jim Eberle	....	digital intermediate on-line editor
Dan Goslee	....	digital intermediate assistant
Lee Haugen	....	apprentice editor
Bruce Lomet	....	digital intermediate head of production: Company 3
Missy Papageorge	....	digital intermediate producer
Erik Rogers	....	digital intermediate producer
Kurt Smith	....	color timer
Stefan Sonnenfeld	....	digital intermediate executive producer
Jimmy Tom	....	digital intermediate colorist
Ian Turpen	....	digital intermediate scanner: Company 3 (uncredited)

Music Department
Todd Bozung	....	music editor
Craig Durrance	....	music engineer: Paramount Recording Studios
Judy Kirschner	....	scoring engineer: Skywalker Studios
Erik Reichers	....	music engineer: Paramount Recording Studios
Angie Rubin	....	music editor
Dana Sano	....	music supervisor
Christopher Spelman	....	music adaptor
Christopher Spelman	....	music arranger
Libby Umstead	....	music coordinator

Other crew
Cassandra Barbour	....	rights and clearances
Ashley Bearden	....	production coordinator
Brian Bergdoll	....	stand-in: for Joaquin Phoenix
Adam Brown	....	water safety
Emma Cooper	....	unit publicist
Luke Crawford	....	production assistant
Sarah Crofts	....	assistant location manager
Anne Marie Dentici	....	production assistant
Patrick Eaton	....	production assistant
John Fedynich	....	assistant production manager
Scott Ferlisi	....	location assistant
Jason Fesel	....	key set production assistant
Shayne Fiske	....	assistant: producer
Dena Ghieth	....	location assistant
Marisa Gregory	....	production assistant
Matt Howard	....	office production assistant
Kim Kraftsky	....	animal trainer (as Kim Krafsky)
Justin Kron	....	location scout
Mike Lane	....	client services
Christopher Matson	....	business affairs
Steve McAuliff	....	animal trainer
Ademola McMullen	....	production assistant
Anthony Pettine	....	script supervisor
Patrick Sarni	....	location coordinator
Laura Sevier	....	rights and clearances
Adam M. Stone	....	product placement coordinator
Cat Stone	....	product placement coordinator
Gayle Vangrofsky	....	location manager
Jamie Vermilye	....	locations unit production assistant
Sara Webster	....	production secretary
Brianne Zulauf	....	assistant production coordinator

Thanks
John Ortiz	....	thanks
Mike Spera	....	thanks

Production Companies

• 2929 Productions
• Tempesta Films

Distributors

• 2929 Productions (2008) (worldwide) (all media)
• Distribution Company (2009) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Magnolia Pictures (2009) (USA) (theatrical)
• Palace Pictures (2009) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Viva International Pictures (2009) (Philippines) (theatrical)
• Wild Bunch Benelux (2009) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Wild Bunch Distribution (2008) (France) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• CatchPlay (2009) (Taiwan) (all media)
• Magnolia Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Magnolia Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Odeon (2009) (Greece) (all media)
• Pinema (2009) (Turkey) (all media) (distributor)
• PlayArte Filmes (2009) (Brazil) (all media)

Special Effects

• Company 3 (visual effects)

Other Companies

• ARRI / Camera Service Center  cameras provided by (as Camera Service Center)
• Animal Actors  animals provided by
• Company 3  digital intermediate
• David Haddad  transportation equipment
• Entertainment Clearances  rights and clearances
• Haddad's  transportation equipment
• K.A.S. Lighting  lighting and grip equipment (as KAS Lighting and Grip)
• K.A.S. Lighting  thanks (as KAS Lighting and Grip)
• Navesync  24 frame playback
• Pacific Title  titles
• Paramount Recording Studios  score recorded and mixed at
• Pivotal Post  Avid Editing Equipment Provided By
• ScriptE Systems  script supervision software
• Skywalker Ranch Scoring Stage  score recorded and mixed at (as Skywalker Studio Scoring Stage)
• Skywalker Sound  post-production sound services
• Stone Management  product placement
• Sylvia Fay/Lee Genick & Associates Casting  extras casting
• Thought Equity  thanks (as Thought Equity Motion)

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some sexuality and brief drug use.

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:R | France:U | Ireland:15A | Netherlands:12 | UK:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:M18 | New Zealand:M | Mexico:B15 | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB)

Filming Locations:

Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

2929 Productions

Trivia:

The movie is set around Brighton Beach and features Gwyneth Paltrow whose mother Blythe Danner starred in the movie Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Leonard leaves the New Years Eve party to meet up with Michelle, he picks up his coat on the rack near the door and you can clearly see that he drops it to the floor rather than holding it (perhaps the actor was expecting the director to cut at this point). In the next shot, he is outside the apartment door holding the coat in his hands.

Movie Connections:

References The Sound of Music (1965)

Soundtrack:

Estranha Forma de Vida

Solid, intense character study from James Gray

Gray's fourth film, his first without a crime element, is amazing, and surprises even with its title. It's a triumph for Joaquin Phoenix, who provides a remarkably giving and open performance even though the character he plays, Leonard Kraditor, is opaque. He's a damaged, emotionally unstable man with attempted suicides in his past: the film, cheerlessly--yet ironically--begins with yet another one. He does know his own sad history, dominated by a broken engagement. On medication for bi-polar disorder, he's been reduced to living with his parents in the Russian and Jewish community of Brighton Beach, Gray's home territory, site of 'Little Odessa,' his distinctive little first film and equally of his subsequent, more grandiloquent ones. (The last, 'We Own the Night', also starred Phoenix.) Leonard doesn't know who he is or what he wants. He may not dare to want anything. He's working, fumblingly, in the dry cleaning establishment on the ground floor that's owned by his Pop, Reuben (Moni Moshikov). He's lost clothes making deliveries; and he's lost himself.

A friend of Leonard's father, Michael Cohen (Bob Ari) has a small chain of dry cleaners Pop's going to merge with. Cohen has a daughter, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), whom the parents have set up with Leonard. He's only a little interested. But he does take her into his little boy's bedroom to show her his black and white photographs of destroyed shopfronts. He's so needy, he welcomes any attention. Sandra is very interested in him. She finds him not odd, but special. And she has a sweetness about her than lingers in the mind.

But then another woman unexpectedly appears: a new neighbor, the blond and dangerous Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow). Even at their first meeting in the hallway she's in trouble, being verbally abused by her visiting father, and in need of comfort and protection. And from then on whenever Michelle calls on Leonard, however bad the time or awkward the occasion, he can never say no. She's pretty, even glamorous, but also unhealthy. She's been on drugs. Leonard can see her window upstairs from his room, and she becomes a glittering object of desire, so near and yet so far. Because he wants her, but she thinks of him from the first as like a brother.

So there are the "two lovers"--Leonard's two women, Sandra, who knows his problems and wants to take care of him, and Michelle, who knows them and takes advantage to make him a comforting pillow in her troubles with Ronald (Elias Koteas), her married lawyer boyfriend. Michelle has Leonard come to a fancy restaurant to meet Ronald and size him up, tell her if he thinks Ronald will ever leave his wife. Instead, while Michelle's in the ladies' room, Ron asks Leonard to watch out for her and see that she's not using again. Then Michelle and Ron go off to his firm's box at the Met and leave Leonard in the company limo. It's a sobering moment that defines Leonard's lostness and the film's originality.

Leonard seems a misfit and a loser, but when Michelle takes him clubbing, he does some rapping in the car and break-dances wildly; he's got some game, somewhere. He also has those strong Jewish Russian family ties that run through Gray's films but don't save his protagonists from disaster. His mother Ruth (Isabella Rossellini, with a severe haircut) watches kindly over him and both his Pop and Cohen are ready to look out for him too. Shooting photos at Cohen's son's bar mitzvah, Leonard is part of a community, however awkwardly. He meets Michelle up on the roof. She doesn't fit in. But he wants her desperately. Meanwhile Sandra declares her love to him at a beach-side restaurant with complicated blue napkins.

'Two Lovers' is aswarm with an elaborate sound design that can be obtrusive. Background music overwhelms conversation at a family gathering, and an echoing passage from 'Cavalleria rusticana' is a bit overdone. It's more firmly glued together by images of long subway rides and dark expensive cars. Though the latter may seem leftovers from Gray's 'The Yards' and 'We Own the Night,' Gray has done a good job of downsizing from those while holding onto their resonance.

Joaquin Phoenix's performance is awkward in a way that would be very painful if it didn't feel so authentic and real. His Leonard is pathetic and lost, but has an inner core of goodness and generosity that makes it seem there may be hope for him. He's a real sucker, but he's a real decent fellow. Leonard has nothing, and so he is ready to throw away his life and throw it away again. Gray goes back to the smallness of his first film, but with a far greater intensity. Leonard's crises feel momentous. Their resolution is a quiet, mute shock. As in other Gray films, the hero blends into a party, and a family network. This time the sense of family and ritual is more offhand and organic than in the preceding two films.

'Two Lovers' has powerful moments. It's like a good short story and it has a surprise O. Henry ending. The performances are uniformly fine. The texture is thick enough with a sense of people and places to override some implausibility in the events. Phoenix's performance will have detractors who find Phoenix too awkward and say it's just as well he plans to quit acting after this for music. But on the contrary this movie made me see how disarming and unique the actor, once overshadowed by his dazzling brother River, has come to be at 35. It would be sad if he left the screen.