Post by Capo on Mar 8, 2010 23:31:21 GMT
Just watched this. It's almost precisely the film I've wanted to see for some time. Understated, sensitive, character-driven without neglecting a real sense of narrative pacing and visual manifestations of human relationships.
Thematically, it's got all the things I've been thinking of of late: human relationships, emotional transience, parental oppression, infidelity, the contradictions of 'love', neediness and vulnerability and so on. It's got its flaws of course, but on the whole, pretty great; honest and patient for the most part.
Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is a bachelor still living with his Jewish parents in Brooklyn. He works for his father in a dry-cleaning store and practices photography as a hobby. He is bipolar; at the beginning of the film he tries to commit suicide. Later in the film we see lash marks on his wrists. He meets two girls, unrelated to one another; one is fast, feisty, unattainable, and seems in her own way as insecure and vulnerable as he is, the other is more secure and assured, understanding. Leonard becomes torn between the two.
As Leonard, Phoenix is impressive, but it's the two female leads that anchor the film in very different ways. As the beguiling but self-deluding and impossibly needy Michelle - Leonard's neighbour - Gwyneth Paltrow gives possibly her best performance; as Sandra, the daughter of a family friend and business partner-to-be, Vinessa Shaw is fittingly cast, effectively portraying a woman with a clear understanding of Leonard's needs.
This last point is somewhat one-dimensional, though; Shaw is underused and her character isn't given enough screen-time. I don't think it's enough for her to be 'understanding' of Leonard and his mysterious, dark past, his clear vulnerability. What are her individual needs, neuroses and so on? With a bit more balance between Michelle and Sandra, this could have been up there with Woody Allen's best dramas.
The final act feels rushed, too. Whereas the first two feel confident in how they unfold - and are all the more engrossing for it - in the final act Leonard's bipolarism, hitherto present but never forced, feels curiously magnified. Though we might fleetingly feel his desperate happiness, the pace with which it occurs disrupts the tone of the film. It doesn't allow for the meatier emotional conflicts to linger as they have done previously; as a result, the plot becomes more predictable and formulaic.
Director James Gray has a fine sense of camera-actor placement. Phoenix and Paltrow's scenes are filmed from afar if not through frames and doorways; sometimes, as when they meet on the roof of their apartment building, they disappear altogether, behind walls, and the camera struggles to pan after them. This is fine cinematic storytelling; Leonard and Michelle's interaction is largely superficial - both are clearly vulnerable but anything beyond friendship is doomed.
Earlier in the film, Phoenix and Shaw have a clear, affecting chemistry, when Leonard 'invites' Sandra into his bedroom (the invitation is more his parents'). Phoenix betrays all the subtle nuances you might expect of an embarrassed, single young male who's been more or less forced into allowing an unknown, attractive female presence into the one space on Earth that is his own; opposite him, Shaw is equally subtle - curious and intriguing. It's a shame she almost falls out of frame mid-way through.
Leonard and Sandra's relationship has promise, but is provoked and planned from the outset by their respective parents. There is another tie, too: Leonard and Sandra's fathers are to merge businesses, and both are keen on a family bond to strengthen the company - these are troubling, volatile economic times, after all.
It's surprising and refreshing to note neither set of parents are out-right tyrants; with a vulnerable son to keep, in the case of Leonard's family, you might say any 'oppression' is two-way. Still, Gray shows sensitivity toward what kinds of pressures - professional, social and familial - young people find themselves under. These are not independent, happy-go-lucky, care-free middle-class youngsters from privileged backgrounds whose neuroses are a result of a superficial upbringing, but edgy, caring people on the brink of domestic and social failure. The film does well to structure its story around these things.
In a telling scene, Leonard accompanies Michelle to dinner with her lover, a married man and father who is also her boss (played by the ever-reliable Elias Koteas). In earlier scenes, Leonard's humble self-depreciation regarding his talents as a photographer is met with genuine encouragement from Michelle. In the scene with her lover, she herself is guilty of over-selling Leonard's creative hobby, as an attempt to make him more 'worthy' in front of her boss and lover. Koteas is great (he never isn't).
There's a clear class conflict present throughout this scene. Michelle over-performs for the lover whose career success she has been drawn to; at the same time, Paltrow also displays an awkwardness in having to cater toward the more honest Leonard, whose presence in itself exposes her own superficial class aspiration.
Thematically, it's got all the things I've been thinking of of late: human relationships, emotional transience, parental oppression, infidelity, the contradictions of 'love', neediness and vulnerability and so on. It's got its flaws of course, but on the whole, pretty great; honest and patient for the most part.
Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is a bachelor still living with his Jewish parents in Brooklyn. He works for his father in a dry-cleaning store and practices photography as a hobby. He is bipolar; at the beginning of the film he tries to commit suicide. Later in the film we see lash marks on his wrists. He meets two girls, unrelated to one another; one is fast, feisty, unattainable, and seems in her own way as insecure and vulnerable as he is, the other is more secure and assured, understanding. Leonard becomes torn between the two.
As Leonard, Phoenix is impressive, but it's the two female leads that anchor the film in very different ways. As the beguiling but self-deluding and impossibly needy Michelle - Leonard's neighbour - Gwyneth Paltrow gives possibly her best performance; as Sandra, the daughter of a family friend and business partner-to-be, Vinessa Shaw is fittingly cast, effectively portraying a woman with a clear understanding of Leonard's needs.
This last point is somewhat one-dimensional, though; Shaw is underused and her character isn't given enough screen-time. I don't think it's enough for her to be 'understanding' of Leonard and his mysterious, dark past, his clear vulnerability. What are her individual needs, neuroses and so on? With a bit more balance between Michelle and Sandra, this could have been up there with Woody Allen's best dramas.
The final act feels rushed, too. Whereas the first two feel confident in how they unfold - and are all the more engrossing for it - in the final act Leonard's bipolarism, hitherto present but never forced, feels curiously magnified. Though we might fleetingly feel his desperate happiness, the pace with which it occurs disrupts the tone of the film. It doesn't allow for the meatier emotional conflicts to linger as they have done previously; as a result, the plot becomes more predictable and formulaic.
Director James Gray has a fine sense of camera-actor placement. Phoenix and Paltrow's scenes are filmed from afar if not through frames and doorways; sometimes, as when they meet on the roof of their apartment building, they disappear altogether, behind walls, and the camera struggles to pan after them. This is fine cinematic storytelling; Leonard and Michelle's interaction is largely superficial - both are clearly vulnerable but anything beyond friendship is doomed.
Earlier in the film, Phoenix and Shaw have a clear, affecting chemistry, when Leonard 'invites' Sandra into his bedroom (the invitation is more his parents'). Phoenix betrays all the subtle nuances you might expect of an embarrassed, single young male who's been more or less forced into allowing an unknown, attractive female presence into the one space on Earth that is his own; opposite him, Shaw is equally subtle - curious and intriguing. It's a shame she almost falls out of frame mid-way through.
Leonard and Sandra's relationship has promise, but is provoked and planned from the outset by their respective parents. There is another tie, too: Leonard and Sandra's fathers are to merge businesses, and both are keen on a family bond to strengthen the company - these are troubling, volatile economic times, after all.
It's surprising and refreshing to note neither set of parents are out-right tyrants; with a vulnerable son to keep, in the case of Leonard's family, you might say any 'oppression' is two-way. Still, Gray shows sensitivity toward what kinds of pressures - professional, social and familial - young people find themselves under. These are not independent, happy-go-lucky, care-free middle-class youngsters from privileged backgrounds whose neuroses are a result of a superficial upbringing, but edgy, caring people on the brink of domestic and social failure. The film does well to structure its story around these things.
In a telling scene, Leonard accompanies Michelle to dinner with her lover, a married man and father who is also her boss (played by the ever-reliable Elias Koteas). In earlier scenes, Leonard's humble self-depreciation regarding his talents as a photographer is met with genuine encouragement from Michelle. In the scene with her lover, she herself is guilty of over-selling Leonard's creative hobby, as an attempt to make him more 'worthy' in front of her boss and lover. Koteas is great (he never isn't).
There's a clear class conflict present throughout this scene. Michelle over-performs for the lover whose career success she has been drawn to; at the same time, Paltrow also displays an awkwardness in having to cater toward the more honest Leonard, whose presence in itself exposes her own superficial class aspiration.