"That's a nice-a donut."
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Closer
Closer is the story of four people and their inability to maintain honest, amiable, or honorable relationships. These people are selfish and flawed and dysfunctional at romance. The men (played by Jude Law and Clive Owen) and the women (played by Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman) find themselves cheating on one another, followed by trying to reconcile. It all comes crashing down in a few intense scenes where the couple's let go of their feelings for one another.
One complaint I had about the movie is that I never felt any attachment to any of the couples. This may be exacerbated by the fact that the passage of time is used too liberally. For instance, near the beginning two of the characters meet. They do some flirting but it seems like maybe it wasn't meant to be. Flash-forward one scene and one of those characters is now flirting with another person. This doesn't necessarily mean much to me, because I had no idea that apparently four months (or more) have elapsed and the first two people are still together! Hence, cheating ensues.
Director Mike Nichols does a great job at pushing his actors to fine performances, especially Clive Owen who is able to show anger, heartache, and humor all at once. And the tension and drama of close relationships are well developed. I also appreciated the frank discussions of sex; one hilarious scene involves an online chatroom and is quite risque. But we never get to look closely at the fun, carefree, early stages of romance. This hurts the film, because in the end I didn't care if Julia stayed with Clive, or if Julia stayed with Jude, or if Julia got with Natalie.
The Verdict: B-.
Michael Bentley 8:47 AM
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