The Phoenix must not quit
Thank you for all your e-mails and messages regarding last week’s column on Michael Jackson. It appeared hours before his death, and it read like an obituary, but I had no idea that he was going to die. I merely wanted to point out two things. One, the adulation of crowds is temporary. The audience may love you now, but they will turn on you.
Two, we pass judgment on our idols for things that have nothing to do with why we admired them in the first place. Isn’t it too much to expect a groundbreaking artist to also be an exemplary human being?
From the reception of last week’s piece it appears that I have two new career options: manghuhula (fortune teller) or mangkukulam (witch). But there was another coincidence besides the obvious one. I’d just finished reading a book on how our lives are ruled by randomness, and then I received an instant demonstration of how randomness is misinterpreted in hindsight as “extrasensory perception.” Fortunately I write a sort-of tech column on Sundays, so that should take care of my next deadline.
For now I will disappoint you by not coughing up lottery numbers or terminating politicians with my thoughts. Even assuming that one can see beyond three dimensions or sense disturbances in the Force, such things must be treated with respect. So shut up or you will meet my gom jabbar.
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The following piece is about a movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. There is nothing this column can do to Joaquin Phoenix that he hasn’t already done to himself with his infamous appearance on Letterman.
Airplanes are not the ideal places to watch movies, but on a recent trip to Singapore I found myself riveted to the little screen. Days later, on the flight back to Manila, I watched it again. The movie is Two Lovers, co-written and directed by the American James Gray. Like his previous film We Own The Night, Two Lovers is set in Brighton Beach and driven by an extraordinary performance by Joaquin Phoenix.
There’s always been something off-kilter about Joaquin Phoenix, a wildness barely under control. He can play sweet and gentle, but you know he can snap at any moment.
At the start of Two Lovers Leonard has already snapped and is trying to put his life back together. It’s a difficult process made more painful by the fact that he’s among people who only want what’s best for him. When we first see him he’s jumping into the ocean with a bag of dry-cleaning. He lets himself sink for a few moments, then starts swimming back up.
The beauty of Phoenix’s performance is that we don’t have to know the full details of Leonard’s breakdown: we can read them in his face.
Gray lets us feel the spaces around Leonard: the chill of late autumn and early winter, the overheated apartment where Leonard lives with his parents, (Why are buildings in America always overheated? You have to do a striptease when you come in from the cold), the smell of cooking in the halls and stairwells (I just know it’s kasha).
Leonard squelches in, dripping wet, trying to avoid his mother who immediately asks him what happened. Leonard’s mother is played by Isabella Rossellini; she is still the most beautiful woman on the screen but she conceals it to show us a warm, overprotective mother.
Leonard’s father (Moni Moshonov) has a more practical approach to the Leonard problem: he’s merging his dry-cleaning business with a larger competitor so his son’s financial future will be secure. This is one of the rare movies in which the anxious, interfering parents are not treated as caricatures — you know they have reason to worry.
Then Leonard meets two girls. The first is Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of his father’s new business partner. It’s an obvious setup, but they try to please the folks. Shortly afterwards Leonard meets a new neighbor, Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow). Both are attractive, but Sandra has a quiet beauty that grows on the viewer, while Michelle, the golden blonde, stops traffic. Immediately you see that Sandra the uncool one (favorite movie: The Sound of Music) is genuine, and Michelle is trouble. You also know that Leonard will fall for Michelle because that’s how people are. We are drawn to trouble.
Here lies the other strength of Two Lovers: its portrayal of the classic Pretty Girl. We all know her — the one who’s had people falling all over her from birth, who always has her way. Gwyneth Paltrow is so perfectly cast, she doesn’t have to do anything: she wreaks havoc just by existing. She’s not exactly evil, just very much aware of her power over people.
Sandra makes no secret of liking Leonard; Michelle knows that he likes her, but she strings him along. She’s the type of girl who calls at 1 a.m. crying over her boyfriend and asking you to come over because she’s so depressed and might hurt herself. When you rush over, she’s laughing with her boyfriend. Later she will utter the line: “I think of you as a brother.”
Like a princess in a fairy tale Michelle lives across the courtyard and Leonard can see her through his window. As Hannibal Lecter pointed out, you desire what you see. Leonard desires Michelle, and more than that, he wants to save her. He thinks that if he can save her, he can save himself.
There’s a palpable sadness about Two Lovers — not the weight of depression, but of longing. We’re looking at the world through Leonard’s eyes. He wishes the situation were different; he struggles to be normal and at peace. He wants to love and take care of another human being. Leonard is a good guy trying to do right by everyone.
Gray and Phoenix quietly rope us into the Save Leonard club. We want him to be happy because if he can be happy, there’s hope for the rest of us.
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