Leonard, a charismatic but troubled young man, moves back into his childhood home following a recent heartbreak. While recovering under the watchful eye of his parents, Leonard meets two women in quick succession: Michelle, a mysterious and beautiful neighbor who is exotic and out-of-place in Leonard’s staid world, and Sandra, the lovely and caring daughter of a businessman who is buying out his family’s dry-cleaning business. Leonard becomes deeply infatuated by Michelle, who seems poised to fall for him, but is having a self-destructive affair with a married man. At the same time, mounting pressure from his family pushes him towards committing to Sandra. Leonard is forced to make an impossible decision – between the impetuousness of desire and the comfort of love – or risk falling back into the darkness that nearly killed him.
February 15th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
This odd, drab little film boasts excellent performances from the bast. Joaquin Phoenix is Leonard, a depressed young man mourning the ned of his engagement. He lives with his parents in Brighton Beach, in an apartment that looks stuck in 1975. His mother (Isabella Rossellini) introduces him to a family friend’s daughter (Sandra, played by Vinessa Shaw) and they start dating. But soon after, he meets Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) a beautiful but unstable woman who lives next door in his building. He is basically marking time with Sandra while he waits for Michelle to come around. There is a charm to the nostalgia of this film: it shows an “old New York” one doesn’t see in contemporary films. This gives it both a timeless quality and a sort of unreality. Occasionally the story seems somewhat implausible. But fortunately the film is grounded in very strong portrayals from its leads.