The Lovers

Deux grands acteurs ne garantissent pas forcément la grande qualité d'un film. La preuve est à nouveau faite avec cette prodution indépendante qui, dans un pas de deux parfois valsant, souvent boitant, met en présence (et parfois en opposition) la rare Debra Winger et l'acteur-dramaturge Tracy Letts.

As with most things here, it doesn't quite work as expected. Even the most graceful moment in this third act - the one moment in the film that would most likely be called touching - works simultaneously in two opposing directions, cementing the bittersweet nature of a film that initially seemed purely bitter before turning toward loopy farce.

With its waltz-like score and farcical symmetry, The Lovers is about as full as a movie can be with a premise so thin.

The wisdom of this meticulously crafted film is in its genuine irony, which amplifies steadily throughout until culminating in a moment of real heartbreak that, ironically enough, only sets the stage for a cycle of deceit to begin again. 

He's a filmmaker with a gift for showing people at their most nakedly desperate and spiritually disheveled and getting you to see yourself in them.