Closer (2004) Reviews

• Very good

  ShannonAmidala2004-12-05

  I've been hearing lots of negativity about this movie. I think a lot of people have been shocked, frankly, by the raw and rough nature of the film. Having read the play, I've been looking forward to it for about a year now, and it's honestly one of the best plays I've ever read. Mike Nichols presents it in an amazing way, very faithful to the words as they're written (and they should be, for the movie is also written by the man who wrote the play, the brilliant Patrick Marber). It's a brutal topic, sex and love, especially when they're combined. I thought the movie was amazing. It captured all of the vulnerability, caustic harshness, and acerbic flirtation that the play vibrated with. All of the cast brought the movie alive. It uplifts and then brings you way down, but that's the point, and yet at the end, I didn't feel depressed or saddened, just really really awake and curious. It's the feeling you get when you get "closer", I suppose. Natalie Portman, in a tour-de-force performance, is the standout by far. Maybe it's because she's the youngest, and not expected to be that awesome, but she is. Anyways, her Alice is flirty and sweet, caustic and manipulative, evasive and yet very open, sexual and gloomy all in one character. She has the best chemistry with the men - whether it be purely sensual with Clive Owen, or innocence and affection with Jude Law. She comes alive with the two guys, and their scenes are ones to look forward to. Julia Roberts, whom everyone looks towards, is not bad in this film. She's very understated and good, but she is outshone in nearly every scene by whomever she's acting with. Clive Owen is absolutely astounding, and he's definitely on everyone's radar screen. As the man of experience and "simplicity", as Jude Law's character comments, he's brash and hotheaded, but also extremely clever. Owen perfectly plays the sleazy, unlikeable character, but somehow manages to appeal to the audience and even though he's a disagreeable character, I think many managed to find something all right about him - Owen's human sense in Larry. Jude Law is simply very very good; neither astounding nor bad. The only reason he does not stand out is the fact that we've all expected him to do a good performance. And he does, he has a great performance. He and Portman have amazing scenes together, and he's always on par. Simply put, the movie is not for everyone (especially not for seeing with a parent or young child); it's a mature adult flick, and does not back down from anything. It's high drama - with all the uplifting romance and brutal arguments of relationships. It's a story about people.

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• It's all about questioning surfaces

  peffs2004-12-06

  Closer: A Mike Nichols delivers his best work yet. CLOSER is a well crafted dissertation on art's reflection of the human condition, particularly the dependence on romantic relationships. It delivers an intimate film that actually achieves depths rarely seen on screen. Kubrick's Eye's Wide Shut only scratched the surface of literal naked lies that represent sexual game-playing on screen. His work came off as a freshman treatise on relationships in a pervy, self-obsessed way. Nichols and screenwriter Patrick Marber deliver a full and rich study on the difficulties of love and sexual tension. Without ever showing a sex scene on screen they are able to portray the nasty nature of jealously, lust and obsession without actually exploiting these acts as Kubrick and countless others have done. The result is a pure _expression of the realization that we don't know anything when it comes to assessing truth in character. Alice (Natalie Portman), a former stripper, is hit by a car in London as she forgets to look right. Dan (Jude Law) comes to her rescue and guides her to the hospital before guiding her into his life. Dan writes obituaries but soon finds a novel in himself thanks to Alice. While shooting the photo for his book he falls for the photographer Anna (Julie Roberts) who pulls back from him given that he's with Alice. For light-style revenge Dan sets up Larry (Clive Owen) in an Internet sex chat room to meet Anna thinking this will embarrass him and her. Cupid backfires thus throwing Larry and Anna into a relationship of their own. First impressions, like all art, can only show you broad strokes of character like stereotypes and lies. Alice is presented as a young girl in need of saving, literally. Anna is a strong, independent artist who seems smart in her career and choices. Dan is a struggling, sensitive writer in search of a muse, someone to inspire and rescue. Larry is a sex obsessed dermatologist and self-described caveman. By the end of the film, however, the audience will get a deeper and more profound view of all four characters and realize we just don't know them as well as we think. Acknowledging that film can be art, the screenwriter is skilled with dialog that reflects the illusionary quality that is art. Every piece of conversation, every word has meaning, reflection and sometimes foreboding for what is to come and the gaps in story and exposition brilliantly leads the audience to fill in those elements with their own interpretations. It is those interpretations and broad-stroke impressions that the film is there to question. Alice, in the scene at Anna's photo exhibit, discusses this very concept to Larry when discussing her reaction to the photos and the show. The function is just a big lie, the glossy photos of people's faces don't' show the real person, the fancy people at the party only reflect that same quality. Everything is for surface show - one-dimensional illusions of character. Alice, Anna, Dan and Larry are those photos just in moving form but that makes all the difference. The movement and editing of the film allows us to jump through months and years of their relationships to unpeel parts of the illusion of character and stereotypes. We can explore wrong assumptions about characters and that should make us explore the real-world difficulties of knowing people, really knowing them and not just their image or attitude. Many will just see this film as a sad story of four wounded people making bad relationship choices. This is really sad because this film is truly a great wake-up call to humanity to embrace a new approach and attitude about art and people. Strength can be a weakness. Vulnerability can be empowering. Dependence can be comforting. Nothing can be valued or viewed without bias and prejudice. Great art, like this film, can sometimes achieve a new way to show us how wrong we can be when we let our bias prevent us from just experiencing life and being open to shifts in perception. So take a closer look, at this film and the life around you. You just might find happiness in walking away from the expected.

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• Who's afraid of Closer?

  arichmondfwc2004-12-21

  Mike Nichols directed, in my opinion, one of the three best adaptations from stage to screen. "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" (The other two being Sidney Lumet's "Long day's journey into night" and Elia Kazan's "A Streetcar named Desire) After the extraordinary television adaptation of "Angels in America" I also would have pleaded with Mike Nichols to do "Closer" Sorry I'm rambling. What I'm trying to say in a rather convoluted way is, simply, thank you Mr. Nichols. Adult themes, conceived and performed by adult artists. I hope it makes zillions of dollars so we can have more of it. Jude Law is a Peter O'Toole without the steroids, Julia Roberts a Jeanne Moreau with an American passport, Clive Owen is a child of John Garfield and Peter Finch and Natalie Portman a Jean Peters with a college degree. I saw the film twice in a row, I hadn't done that in years. Not since "Drugstore Cowboy", "Apartment Zero" and "Sex Lies and Videotape" The unfolding of the dark happens in front of our eyes and it feels chillingly familiar. Lies we tell each other with so much conviction with so much honesty. The only real thing is the pain and the loneliness. It doesn't sound like a very entertaining night out but believe me, it is. Go, see for yourself. You may have to confront something you didn't want to confront. That's part of the process call growing up. Who's afraid of that?

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• Closer to reality...

  pic23ent2004-12-08

  This is the most honest film I've ever seen. Although I'm sure there are critics out there who will comment on the explicit language rather than the story, anyone who's ever been in a dysfunctional relationship can relate to at least some part of this film. I for one found it a very personal and shockingly accurate depiction of how human beings use love and sex to unintentionally destroy each other. The performances were magnificent from all angles. Mike Nichols has done it again. This film is "Carnal Knowledge" for the new millennium. If the Academy does not recognize "Closer" as a Best Picture candidate, then the Academy should no longer be recognized as the authority on achievement in film... yes, it's that good.

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• I Stayed To The End

  marcosaguado2004-12-15

  What a treat. Most of the people who came with me, left, half way through the film. I stayed to the end and I loved it. It moved me. A rarity this days. The face of Jude Law is, still, so full of possibilities. He seems unafraid of darkness. Strong. This is his most grown up performance. I can't wait to see what he'll become. (If he stays away from Hollywood as much as temptations permit, and keeps that purity, that makes his darkness so powerful, as intact as humanly possible). Julia Roberts is wonderful in a performance part Margaret Sullavan, part Jeanne Moreau but all her own. Clive Owen is a force of nature. Dangerous, compelling, human to the hilt. And what about Natalie Portman? Wow. No surprise here. But what a surprise. I'm sure she is going to amaze us for years and years to come. I'm really glad I stayed to the end.

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