James Gray, director of such hard-edged crime dramas as LITTLE ODESSA and THE YARDS, reveals the dark and unsettling complexities of love in his somber romantic drama, TWO LOVERS. Set against the gray winter backdrop of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the story centers on Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix), a depressed and sometimes suicidal bachelor trying to pick up the pieces of his life after a bad breakup. Living with his parents and helping out at the family dry-cleaning business, Leonard finds himself in an existence that, save for his dabbling in black-and-white photography, is ordinary and stifling. His parents, mother Ruth (Isabella Rossellini) and father Reuben (Moni Moshonov), hope that a merger with a lucrative business--run by a friend of Reuben’s with a pretty daughter, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw)--will spark a budding romance in Leonard. But their plan hits a snag when Leonard befriends Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), an alluring but emotionally needy blonde who struggles with her own desire for validation from a married man with whom she is having an affair. Phoenix is brilliant as the brooding and complex Leonard, an anti-hero caught between filial obligation and a longing for escape, who sees in Michelle a partner for his troubled soul. While TWO LOVERS can come off at times a bit unadorned and overly low-key, its great strength lies in its power to simply and honestly convey the muddled and awkward realities of love--a feat that could not be matched by 1000 generic Hollywood rom-coms.