Review of The Lovers (2017) by Spangle — 29 Aug 2017

Detailing the respective affairs of married couple Michael (Tracy Letts) and Mary (Debra Winger), The Lovers borders on the touching and poignant, while never really having enough meat on its bones to make it all come together. Instead, it is too much of a re-hash of prior commentary on affairs in relationships to really break out on its own. Content to just focusing on the sexual portion of relationships, how people get tired without any spice in the relationship, and how people constantly promise their mistress/mister(?) they will tell their spouse, The Lovers has some interesting situations but never really hits the right notes to make it all come together. As it stands, The Lovers is just too paltry and stripped down to be an overly compelling watch and, as a result, it is rather difficult to recommend this one as a truly necessary watch.

Relying largely upon a score to tell its story for much of the film, The Lovers often goes through long stretches of time with little-to-no dialogue. Oddly enough, this potentially dull approach is the film's best quality, adding this feeling that we are watching a visual accompaniment to a symphony orchestra instead of a film. It also allows the film to cover-up its rather dull treatment of its themes, but by-and-large, it is often beautiful to listen to and allows the film to achieve success that it limited story cannot reach. This rather dull and paltry story, however, is what largely undermines the film as a whole by never allowing it to separate itself from better and more in-depth looks at affairs and the emotions surrounding them. Instead, the film I rather simplistic and just shows the sneaking around and some of the anger, but quickly advances through it all in the name of simple and unspoken decisions. Had the film been willing to confront more of the emotional weight surrounding such actions in a relationship, The Lovers could have avoided becoming dull or having to rely upon the score to really tell a compelling story. However, as it stands, this score is nothing more than a band-aid for a story that never really achieves stand-alone status and could have instead been told in a short film.

While Tracy Letts and Debra Winger do a good jobs in their respective roles, The Lovers also suffers from some poorly written and acted bits that only serve to undermine the authentic emotion of that moment. Chief among them in a scene of Michael and Mary having dinner with their son and his girlfriend. Awkward to sit through due to the undercurrent of emotion all of them know to be present, the dinner is best described as people trying to act awkward and stiff, but doing so in an awkward and stiff manner. As a result, it feels akin to something out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, except the whole has already been turned into pod people and is trying to act like this whole lack of emotion thing is better than really feeling anything. It really ruins the moment, and unfortunately, too many dramatic moments get the same treatment. Both Robert and Lucy exhibit the same behavior when fighting with Mary and Michael, respectively, as Jacobs' sparse dialogue renders their conversations feeling more akin to highlight reels taken out-of-context with the scenes never able to really soar as the actors are given so little to work with in the way of depth or content, plus Jacobs never allows the scenes to stand on their own by either relying on the score or just cutting away.

Feeling rather disjointed in structure and instead relying upon an awkward flow to keep the proceedings moving forward, The Lovers is both unoriginal and dully handled. Had it been longer, it would have been a tougher watch, but as it stands, the enjoyable acting from Letts and Winger make this one that is rather easy to get through, even if it is lacking any of the substance or emotional resonance a film with these themes should have been able to possess.