SnoopyStyle
Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) tries to kill himself and is rescued from drowning. He is depressed after breaking up with his fiancée for genetic reason. His parents (Isabella Rossellini, Moni Moshonov) set him up with their business partner's shy daughter Sandra Cohen (Vinessa Shaw). He's moved back in with his parents and working at their Brooklyn dry cleaners. He falls for neighbor Michelle Rausch (Gwyneth Paltrow) and starts pursuing her. She is wild, unattainable, and having an affair with her married co-worker Ronald Blatt (Elias Koteas).It could be better if Leonard is more appealing. Michelle toys with him like a sad little boy. It's definitely a more adult love triangle where it's not only about lust and obsession. It's also calculations, deceptions, and settling. It's complicated. I would have preferred a simpler nerdy Leonard out of his league with the impossibly beautiful Michelle. Instead, he's a sad and slightly unstable guy. This is interesting but not necessarily crowd pleasing.
crenigma478
Oh how I wish this film were as universally loved as it should be. Easily the best work of Joaquin Phoenix or Gwenyth Paltrow's career to date, this film is simply fantastic.The restaurant scene using Henry Mancini's Lujon as background music, is one of my favorite film scenes of all time. So many layers in a 3 person conversation...simply brilliant. The small things, the subtle nuance of Leonard ordering a Brandy Alexander, then being asked if he'd like a real straw, or Blatt asking Leonard about a pizza shop he recalls from the area where Leonard lives...perfect! If you've never seen it..Give it a try! You just may find yourself transfixed!!
LilyDaleLady
It was hard to know how to rate this film -- the performances and cinematography are quite good and some elements of the script are poignant. I am not surprised to learn here that it is loosely based on a short story more than 120 years old! Somehow, the script has updated the action to the present day, where it makes no sense.Why? Because nobody in the US agrees to arranged marriages. The main character, Leonard, is 36: He would have grown up on American movies, TV shows, etc. all making it clear that in western culture, people marry for love. His parents are Israeli immigrants of Russian origin. NONE of those cultures have had arranged marriages in the past 150 years!The other problem is that Leonard seems not merely "troubled" but mentally retarded or perhaps, developmentally delayed, in some way. He doesn't behave like a normal adult, and certainly not one who grew up in the cultural milieu of New York City and it's environs. He's naive, weird, sheltered. He has no concept of living on his own. There is no sense of rebellion or desire for him to have his own career or apartment. He appears to have attended college, but utterly lacks the sophistication of someone who has done so. Sure, there are sheltered, weird, introspective people like this in the world. But chances are, they are not "marriage material" for anyone. More likely, they end up living homeless under a bridge, or in some halfway house, or spend a good chunk of their lives in a residential treatment center.The backstory that Leonard has the gene for Tay suggests the scriptwriters did not bother even slightly researching this. Many Jews have the gene for Tay Sachs (and it is not solely unique to the Jewish community). Because of this, most Jews are tested for it before having children. But the PRESENCE of Tay Sachs genes does not normally result in loving couples breaking up! HELLO! this is the 21st century. People who are found to have this anomaly either do not have children, adopt, or use artificial insemination. Leonard is hardly a member of a royal lineage that requires his specific genes. Furthermore, as a carrier, he would have at least a small risk of this in any relationship and any partner he choose would require genetic testing. EPIC FAIL here.What does make sense here is the story of a man torn between two potential female partners -- one beautiful and sexy, but unacceptable to his family. The other plain -- sweet and kindhearted -- but utterly undesirable, more of a sister-type. Of course, his family wants him to marry this second girl, whose father also just so happens to own a compatible dry- cleaning firm. But it doesn't work in this film, because Leonard has no reason to want to be with Sandra (Vinessa Shaw): doesn't desire her, doesn't really want to work in dry-cleaning, doesn't even really want to please his parents. (Shaw is fine here, in a thankless role.)The sad part is that Leonard only proposes to Shaw when his flighty, screwy semi-girlfriend Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) totally gives him the heave-ho and destroys his dreams. In other words, it's on the rebound. It's already clear by then that Leonard wants to go to California with a blonde shiksa. So his marriage to Sandra is a cruel fake, that will likely make both of them miserable. It's not a stretch to imagine that Michelle will come crawling back into his life when her unfaithful boyfriend dumps her again, and that Leonard will cheat on Sandra to be with his true love Michelle. So you end the film pitying Sandra for her easy acceptance of the engagement ring, that Leonard has heartlessly transferred from the woman he really desires to the one he has settled for.Again, this story would make a great deal more sense if set in the late 19th or early 20th century, where we could believe in such naivety. Instead, the ending left me feeling depressed and that the storyline was creepy. Why should the lovely Sandra (who is quite attractive, just not Gwyenth-attractive...what women would want to have to compete with THAT blonde, skinny perfection?) have to settle for a mentally ill, reclusive, slovenly man who DOESN'T EVEN LOVE HER?Like I said, a strange little movie that I can't imagine who the audience would be, or who the filmmakers THOUGHT would like this.Joaquin Phoenix is a fine actor -- his work in "Walk The Line" was exemplary -- but he's sleepwalking here, foreshadowing his decision to give up acting for hip hop (or was that an act?). He's much too attractive, anyways, for a guy who lives in his parent's home in middle age, or who has trouble meeting girls -- it's odd casting for a "Marty"-type part (Marty was played by uber-homely Ernest Borgnine). Because of this, we don't sense how inappropriate his flirtation with the unstable Michelle is, because a Joaquin/Gwyneth pairing -- two hottie superstars -- is not unbelievable at all.Because of THAT, I think many viewers are probably rooting for Leonard to choose the dishonest, unstable MIchelle and move to California, no matter how unlikely or tragic that kind of action seems to be. That puts an odd spin on the entire movie.My own impression is that NEITHER woman belonged with the insular, suicidal, mentally ill Leonard -- that a "happier" ending would have had him getting proper therapy, a good shrink and moving out on his own, perhaps to find a meaningful life, rather than just doing what his clingy parents want him to do. It is strange in 2008, to see a film that argues for arranged marriage, pleasing your suffocating parents, giving up your dreams and "settling" for a plain girl you don't love.
