Comments on: TWO LOVERS Review

By: joseph grella

joseph grella — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:30:59 +0000

don’t know what to say what to do cept post this just like you…
grey? grella? too bad i thought jamie had lent this film his detached stamp but then i’m biased. after actually seeing wolves i thought the future held much promise for this 28 yr old introspective, lest i say, genius? but then again i’m biased… now 2 lovers traisps across the screen and the somber tones make you wonder whose grey is casting shadows

By: Jamison Grella

Jamison Grella — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:33:27 +0000

Hi. My name is Jamison Grella (sometimes credited as James Grey). For internet inept, such as Mr. Wilde here, let me clarify something. I did not direct “Two Lovers.” However, having not seen the movie, I would like to address the blatant classism that Mr. Wilde here has displayed. I do not think it is incalculable for someone who starts as a crew member to make the leap to the big chair. Hell, look at Soderbergh (he started in the Camera Dept.).

So, a word to the wise, Mr. Wilde. Learn how to do research. It will prevent you from making….embarrassing assumptions.

By: Michael Wilde

Michael Wilde — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:34:27 +0000

James Grey (real name Jamison Grella) is a crew member, usually a gaffer and grip who dabbles in cinematography. He is by no means a director. Unfortunately he proved this by stuffing up a great story that Blind Freddy could’ve directed and still made a profit.

Kicking the cat because the car won’t start means blaming someone else for your failures, and blaming Joaquin for his incompetence is just an excuse. The producers should’ve got a bona fide director, and the investors should not have greenlighted the funding untill they got one.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:51:57 +0000

I’m shocked that this movie has received such positive reviews. It plods along at a snail’s pace, and if I had seen it on television instead of the theater, I absolutely would have turned it off within the first 30 minutes. It’s without a doubt the worst movie I’ve paid to see in a theater in several years. It’s not that the acting is bad; it’s that the story is unrealistic and, well, just plain boring.

Leonard, who seemed to me like a sixth-grade boy in a man’s body, has mental health issues. Michelle is a complete emotional mess, manipulative in her neediness. Sandra, who seems on the face of it to be the only one of the three who has it together, is for some reason desperate enough to go for…Leonard. Before Leonard and Sandra kiss for the first time, Sandra mumbles something about how “a lot of guys…” What? Aren’t attracted to her? Don’t want to date a Jewish woman? Huh? A major weakness of the plot, in my opinion, is why Sandra, a beautiful young woman with good social skills, could possibly be attracted to Leonard. Sandra’s character is never really developed enough that the viewer can understand why this might be. It mostly focuses on Leonard pursuing Michelle, even though in the first part of the move, Michelle stands up Leonard about as often as Leonard stands up Sandra. Sandra seems fairly normal; she looks unhappy when Leonard is preoccupied or agitated. So why is she interested in him? She says she wants to “take care” of Leonard, but that’s about all the movie offers by way of explaining why she’d go for a guy like Leonard.

I’ll remember this movie not because I enjoyed it, but because of how much I did not enjoy it.

By: Joie

Joie — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:38:47 +0000

I’m reposting this from THND, since there’s a brewing war about Isabella’s on-and-off-screen sensuality in their comments section, hence, no discussion space to dig deeper behind this film’s laminated veneer of “old style posing” as some sort of heart-felt innovation in filmmaking.

I absolutely enjoyed the film, but not for its earnest portrayal of anything remotely naturalistic or even as a fatalistic cautionary tale. Of course, he was going to end up with Vinessa Shaw’s character. Rounding up the current reviews from critics in the NY area, no one has yet to mention the film’s absurd moments of pure awkwardness, such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s laughable “Can You See Me Now?” nipplegate scandal across the hall from Leonard. Or when the titular two lovers meet on the train, and she happens to suggest text messaging as if it was just introduced this past year. The film is not too far away from the emotionalhonesty of HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, but of course, who would vouch for that film when such a candidly “solemn” study of doomed romance in New York seems to be an easier, less commercial candidate for Valentine praise? James Gray gives us, on one hand, the antiquated quality of an opera duet played with bombastic self-importance during a lush love scene, while doling out those recognizable tropes of the reviled rom-com genre. Exhibit A: a wonderful nightclub sequence of infantile desperation and unexpected talent performed by Joaquin Phoenix through breakdancing. Enough said.