Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
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Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix in Two Lovers.
Fast & Furious
THE single-disc edition of this retreaded version of The Fast and the Furious has only a gag reel and a commentary track by director Justin Lin.
That's not much to go on, extras-wise, but for what it's worth, the gag reel is especially telling. It's not particularly funny... but then, stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker don't have much to laugh about in the long decline of careers that have essentially stalled since the humongous 2001 hit movie.
Eight years later, Walker is actually starting to look like his worn-around-the-edges fed Brian O'Connor as he hunts for a Mexican drug kingpin. Diesel's hard-driving Dom Toretto, anticipating capture at any time, says fare-thee-well to his scrappy girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez).
The two frenemies are forced together when Dom gets word Letty has been murdered by the very kingpin O'Connor is seeking. Said kingpin regularly employs illegal street racers, so Brian and Dom get busy racing through the streets of L.A., Mexico and through long subterranean tunnels in a gas-fumed quest for justice and/or retribution. As he proved in the unrelated Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, director Lin has a facility for slick automotive action (as well as a pronounced fetish for shooting writhing, short-skirted race groupies at crotch level in slo-mo).
But it's still hopelessly redundant, and just because the movie's marketing acknowledges that ("New model. Original parts.") doesn't make it any less so. 2 stars
Two Lovers
WRITER-DIRECTOR James Gray returns to the Russian-Jewish milieu of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn where, as in his previous films, a young man finds himself torn asunder by his options.
Here, the romantic option for the troubled Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) is between Sandra Cohen (Vinessa Shaw), a nice Jewish girl who happens to be the daughter of dad's business partner, and Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), the mistress of a millionaire (Elias Koteas) with a past drug problem.
Freed up from the violence that distinguished his other films (Little Odessa, We Own the Night), Gray manages to elicit considerable suspense from the premise purely on the strengths of his cast. Playing the needy/neurotic/unstable lover, Paltrow projects vulnerability with a sensual undercurrent that automatically answers the question of why Leonard would choose her over the sweet, benign Sandra.
Phoenix likewise engenders sympathy for the troubled Leonard with a unique blend of charm, raw sensitivity and a disturbing capacity for self-destructive behaviour.
The jury is out on how much Phoenix had to act. 3 stars
Top 10 DVD Rentals
1. Watchmen
2. Push
3. Knowing
4. Coraline
5. The Haunting In Connecticut
6. Echelon Conspiracy
7. The Code
8. Confessions of A Shopaholic
9. Gran Torino
10. Two Lovers
-- Rogers Video, week ending July 26
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 30, 2009 E4
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