Closer was one of those films which I'd wanted to watch for ages for several reasons:
a) I've always has a soft spot for Clive Owen b) I have always thought Julia Roberts is a good actress c) I'd never seen Jude Law in a film and had heard a lot of good things about him.
Hmmm, points a), b) and c) above will be addressed later in this review!=== CAST, CREW & STUFF LIKE THAT ===
Pretty much an all star cast with Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman. There are no supporting cast members that appear more than once and for more than a moment so it's not worth mentioning them!
Closer was directed by Mike Nichols and was developed from a play written by Patrick Marber who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The film was produced by Cary Brokaw and John Calley and the original music for the film was by Steven Patrick Morrissey. Damien Rice's song "The Blower's Daughter" features in the film as well as a few other songs being played in the background in some scenes.
Closer was released in 2004 having been originally released as a play in 1997. It runs for 1 hour 39 minutes and is rated a 15.
=== PLOT SUMMARY ===
The films opens with Alice (Portman) walking down a busy street in London towards Dan (Law) and they catch each other's eyes so much so that she walks in front of a black cab and is knocked over. As Dan leans down over her to see if she's ok she utters her first cute words to him "Hello stranger". He takes her to hospital, she's fine, he skips the day off work (he's an obituary writer) to spend time with her. Fast forward a year or so later and Dan is being photographed for the cover of his book by Anna (Roberts). He feels attracted to her, it seems mutual, they share a kiss, which might seem romantic, apart from the fact that he's been living with Alice as his girlfriend. She turns up and senses the attraction between Dan and Anna but says nothing about it. Alice asks Anna to photograph her and Anna thinks she's perfect for a exhibition she's preparing for. Anna makes it clear to Dan that they can't pursue anything as he's with Alice.
Some time later, Larry (Owen), who's a doctor, is in a sex chat room and comes across "Anna" and she performs certain actions for him. He's so turned on by this that he agrees to meet her and so he goes off to meet "Anna" in an aquarium. The online Anna is, in fact, Dan, who's obsessed with Anna. Coincidentally when Larry goes to the aquarium he meets the real Anna and somehow they end up together. So Larry is with Anna and Dan is with Alice, sounds simple doesn't it? Oh dear, it's not to be, as one of the couples gets married and then one of the women has an affair with the other guy and leaves her man and it all gets rather complicated and sad and bitter.
Who marries who? Who sleeps with someone they shouldn't be sleeping with? Who takes revenge and how? Is it a happy ending? I'm not telling you so there…=== MY ANALYSIS ===
Oh where do I start with my analysis of this strange film? The two female leads are playing American characters, which is helped by the fact that they are both actually American in real life! The male leads are playing English characters, so, ditto to what I said about the female leads, except until I saw this film I thought Jude Law was American (and on doing a bit of research it turns out he was born in Lewisham, South East London)!
Let me say now that I didn't sympathise with ANY of the characters in the film. Both Jude Law and Clive Owen's characters came across as pompous twits, totally self-obsessed with their own needs and wants, although I felt more dislike towards Law's character throughout the film. He initially appears as a bespectacled struggling writer (who is already in a relationship) when he first meets Natalie Portman's character and some time later when he's living with her, he seems to have progressed in life, is far more confident, is having his book published and wears contact lenses. The book happens to be about Alice, so we're assuming that she has helped bring about these positive changes in his life.
We first see Clive Owen's character as a seemingly seedy character visiting an online sex arena, but why? He's a successful doctor and is good-looking, why would he need to resort to arranging to meet a complete stranger after having a sordid chat with "her" online. I couldn't understand why Julia Roberts' character even gives Larry the time of day after their initial meeting when he mistakenly thinks she's performed sexual acts for him online. Wouldn't most sane women run a mile if a complete stranger accused you of doing something like that when you hadn't done that? But are we dealing with sane characters here?
I felt the film was trying to portray the deeper side of the expression "love at first sight". The official tagline for the film was "If you believe in love at first sight, you never stop looking." From what this film portrays are we to take it that if you can fall in love with someone at first sight, then it's quite feasible that you can fall in love with someone else AGAIN at first sight whilst you're still supposedly in love with the other person you fell in love with?
I couldn't fault the acting of any of the 4 leads. Roberts and Portman delivered their roles superbly, I disliked Roberts' character intensely (presumably the writer's intention), I've never seen her in such a negative role before. It was also rather strange to see her as a blonde.
I felt somewhat sorry for Portman's character (who's a stripper by profession) but not sorry enough to really care about what happened to her. This is the first time I'd seen Portman in an adult role, having found her very talented in her role in Leon (1994) as the child female lead.
I was most impressed with Jude Law, in that I really wanted to bash his character over the head with a frying pan or a bit of humanity! When an actor evokes that much emotion in a viewer deliberately, to me it means they're doing a good job.
With Clive Owen, you start off thinking his character is a real loser, then you start to like him, then you feel sorry for him, then you think he's a loser again. A wide range of emotions to feel for one character in just over 90 minutes!
I was slightly confused about a scene in a memorial garden at the start of the film and its relevance at the end of the film. It wasn't made clear but I think we're supposed to draw our own conclusion as to what it implied. Hope that didn't sound too cryptic?!
=== DVD EXTRAS ===
I felt somewhat cheated on this DVD purchase as it was extremely light on the extras. The only extra really is Damien Rice's song "The Blower's Daughter" which runs for just over 5 minutes with scenes from the film interspersed with the song's video which is in black and white. Quite a nice song but rather depressing with Rice repeating almost endlessly "Can't take my eyes off you" whilst he stands on a deserted beach on a cold windy day watching a woman with her back to him.
The other extras (if you can call them that) were just trailers for films, such as Hitch, Spanglish, The Forgotten and Little Black Book.
The audio options available are in English, English Audio Descriptive Service and Spanish. Subtitles are available in dozens of languages including English, Arabic, Finnish, Danish, Serbian and Turkish. 27 different scene selections are available although just pictured not labelled so it was not as easy as with some DVD when the scene is labelled with a title.
CONCLUSION
So how about my reasons for watching this film?
Well:
a) I no longer have such a soft spot for Clive Owen, he hasn't aged as well as, say, someone like Sean Connery! Acting-wise though I can't knock him. The stubble and tortured look isn't my cup of tea but he portrays a broken man exceedingly well. b) I still admire Julia Roberts, but found her to play a negative role in Closer which makes a huge change to the normal likeable characters she plays. c) I've now seen Jude Law in action, I don't like his accent, I don't think he's as hot as the press has made out, but I found him to be a good actor.
All in all, I'd give Closer a strong 6 out of 10. I'm not that keen on watching it again - it's too depressing, although some might say it's too realistic. It depicts the ego of men, the fickleness of women and most of all frailty of human relationships. It was somewhat jarring that the film jumps around in time and it's not clear how much time has elapsed between scenes, sometimes hours, sometimes months.
It's a good job the film is rated a 15 certificate, anyone under that age would find it difficult to understand the film and even most 15 year old would probably be bored to tears watching Closer!
Do I recommend it? Yes - if you want to be depressed and yes if you want to watch something that is honest. No - if you like happy stories with nice happy endings with all loose ends tied up. Make up your own mind, I'm only recommending it as I HAVE to make a choice between yes and no.
NB: Closer was nominated for 2 Oscars - Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. Clive Owen won a BAFTA for his role. Both Owen and Portman won a Golden Globe for their roles as well as a handful of other awards (info courtesy of IMDB).
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Story
Average
Characters/Performances
Good
Special Effects
Average
Soundtrack
Average
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