When one considers the career of writer/director Roland Joffe, substantial pictures such as “The Killing Fields” and “The Mission” come immediately to mind. However, Joffe’s overall filmography isn’t without a few misfires, with recent fare such as “There Be Dragons” failing to connect with audiences. There’s also the 2011’s effort “You and I,” which was meant to launch the group t.A.T.u. to big screen heights. And, of course, there’s 2007’s “Captivity,” a mangled “Saw” clone that was reportedly taken away from the helmer to beef up scenes of torture and gore. I hope somebody writes a book about that production one day. It’s been a rough journey for Joffe lately, and “The Lovers” isn’t about to reverse his fortunes. Commanding a confused, overblown romantic adventure, Joffe loses concentration quickly, allowing the movie to shatter into pieces of stunted emotion and visual design, never registering as the complete, complex journey the helmer imagines. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com