Two Lovers: the purlieus of the heart

I just got done watching Two Lovers (2008) with Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Vinessa Shaw. It was a new experience for me. The story was inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story "White Nights". There's a quote from Ivan Turgenev at the beginning:

"And was it his destined part
Only one moment in his life
To be close to your heart?
Or was he fated from the start
to live for just one fleeting instant,
within the purlieus of your heart."

purlieu |ˈpərl(y)oō|
noun ( pl. -lieus or -lieux |-l(y)oō(z)|)
the area near or surrounding a place : the photogenic purlieus of the Princeton.
• figurative a person's usual haunts.
• Brit., historical a tract on the border of a forest, esp. one earlier included in it and still partly subject to forest laws.

This is Leonard's predicament. His is a complicated character and Phoenix does a great job bringing out all the intricacies. This was supposed to be his last movie before his vaunt into the world of hip hop, as 'mockumented' in I'm Still Here (2010), which thank God wasn't true. Leonard is a heartbroken man and suicidal as a result. He had an engagement broken off and now he is in despair. He lives under the watchful eye of his Jewish parents in a Brooklyn apartment and works for the family business. He seems more at home talking with kids than adults. He has charisma but its full potential is choked because of his wounds.

He has scars on his wrists. His parents are worried, so their care is sometimes excessive, but what would you do if he were your kid? His life takes a turn for the interesting when he is introduced to the daughter of his father's business partner, Sandra. She is the good girl, the one you can bring home to mom. If we were at all in our senses, she is the wife we should all want. But when everything is there for the taking, when you already know you can get the girl, it's almost a little boring. This is human psychology. I believe this shouldn't be the case, but 99% of us feel it when it happens. The key quote that critics underline is: She wants to take care of him. She understands his pain and wants to nurture him out of it. But doesn't that make us recoil? I don't want to be your science project. I want to be nurtured out of my pain in a more indirect way. I wouldn't want that to be your motive. But all the same, she has good intentions, and probably voices awkwardly feelings that are more noble.

While he keeps his distance from Sandra (he's likes, but is not smitten), he accidentally bumps into Michelle. She is not Jewish. She is wild. A guy's fantasy. The girl you wouldn't bring home to mom. They have a wild night out on the town. But she gets a text that makes her cry. Leonard finds out it's because her boyfriend can't come out. Boyfriend! Not only did she didn't tell him, this idiot is married with a kid. This is the trouble with fantasies. There usually always screwed up. But Leonard is still smitten and wants her to be the girl of his dreams. But she puts him in the friend-zone and tells him all her problems. Doesn't this sound like an experience every guy has gone through? You have a girl on the side who you know you can have, while you chase a girl you know you'll probably never have while she puts you in the friend-zone? What this movie does really well is take these soap opera cliches and make them believable. The movie works because of the realism. It's so rare you see a love story set in Manhattan and not see it from the perspective of the middle class.

The movie is about unrequited love. I thought it did a great job on that score. Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Vinessa Shaw all were amazing. While Leonard was in the purlieus of Michelle's heart, even if she did let him come in for one moment, he learns that it is Sandra that he should truly love, and who truly loves him.