The Lovers Debra Winger, Tracy Letts, Aidan Gillen, Melora Walters. Directed by Azazel Jacobs. Rated R. Opens Friday at Green Valley Ranch, Suncoast and Town Square.
The opening half-hour of The Lovers suggests that the title could refer to the extramarital partners of bored middle-aged married couple Michael (Tracy Letts) and Mary (Debra Winger), but the pleasant twist of writer-director Azazel Jacobs’ odd but endearing movie is that the lovers are actually Michael and Mary themselves. Letts, an acclaimed playwright whose screen acting career mostly consists of small parts as sniveling bureaucrats, and Winger, whose difficulty finding good parts in middle age was the subject of an entire feature documentary (2002’s Searching for Debra Winger), make the most of their rare leading roles, and the director trusts them to convey the story’s complex emotions, often wordlessly.
As the movie opens, both Michael and Mary are assuring their respective lovers (Melora Walters as ballet teacher Lucy and Aidan Gillen as writer Robert) that they’re on the verge of ending their marriage. But they both put off the end with excuses (mainly an impending visit by the couple’s college-age son and his new girlfriend), and somewhere along the line their frustration with their illicit partners turns into unexpected renewed passion for each other. Giving in to that lust carries just as many disastrous consequences as giving in to the initial urge to cheat, and by the time their son shows up for his visit, things have spun completely out of control.
Despite all of that heavy relationship drama, Jacobs (Momma’s Man, Terri) keeps the tone fairly light, showing how both Michael and Mary can be playful and feisty, and never shying away from the realities of physical intimacy later in life. Instead of the typical acoustic rock of a low-key indie drama, Jacobs uses a lush orchestral score, which frames the couple’s troubles along the lines of a classical tragedy, or a Woody Allen riff on Ingmar Bergman. Even when the characters are engaged in a heated shouting match in the movie’s climax, there’s as much being said by the soundtrack and the body language as there is by the dialogue. Sometimes the movie’s enigmatic tone is more frustrating than enlightening, but that reflects the characters’ own difficulties at understanding their motivations. Human relationships are messy and mysterious, and Jacobs makes no excuses for that.
