Joanquin Phoenix – with street bum beard and dark shades – says he’s retiring from acting. If that’s the case, then this is one grand finale of a small film to go out on. Leonard (Phoenix) lives with his parents in Brooklyn after another failed suicide attempt jumping in the bay. His mother (Isabella Rossellini) yes, I said his mother, hen-pecks him over usually nothing except dating their friend’s Jewish daughter, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw) because it would mean a merger of their dry cleaning businesses should the two marry. But what Leonard really wants is passion. What he really wants is a woman to replace his long-gone fiancée. What he really wants is Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) a bad nightclub-hopping girl whose life has no direction. One woman calms Leonard, but the other one ignites him. And the two – Paltrow and Phoenix in turn – ignite us. As an audience we are completely seduced and convinced by their heat, his infatuation, his lust, and even his twitches, and then there’s his longing for her through the window (Michelle is also his neighbor). Their odd chemistry that feels for the most part star-crossed. Phoenix delivers a subtle underdog performance that is anything but, and Paltrow is just plain on her game as usual. Four tiaras
