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Closer

December 4, 2004

Closer
Starring: Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen

This movie is based on a play, which is fairly obvious because no screenwriter in Hollywood is this clever with his dialogue. Plus, no one in real life actually talks like that (unless they live at Dawson's Creek.)

One day, Dan (Law) is walking down a crowded street in London when he makes eye contact with Alice (Portman). They end up spending some time together that morning discussing their lives. Alice is a former stripper from the States and Dan is a failed novelist and now works writing obituaries in the paper. Dan tells her that he is currently has a girlfriend but before we know it he is dating Alice. (The movie likes to skip ahead several months without a warning so it can take a moment to catch up to it.)

Now Dan has a novel coming out called "The Aquarium" and he meets Anna (Roberts) who is a photographer at his photo shoot for the book jacket. They make a connection and Dan sets his sights on Anna despite the fact that he is still with Alice. Anna tells him she isn't interested because of Anna and because she is currently going through a divorce.

Several months later (flash fast-forward) Dan is on a sex chat room pretending to be a woman and meets a doctor named Larry (Owen). He taunts Larry and tells him his name is Anna and that he should meet him at the aquarium. Coincidentally enough, Anna is there and after clearing up the misunderstanding she and Larry start chatting. Flash fast-forward to several months later at an art gallery opening for Anna where all four characters are in the same room together. The rest of the movie is about Larry and Dan fighting over, and having affairs with, Anna and Alice and Alice and Anna.

Lots of drama and some pretty clever and funny scenes help move this movie along. It is also very sexy and there is a great scene with Alice and Larry in the back room of a club where you can't tell exactly what Alice's motivations are and where the truth ends and the lies begin.

The movie is decent. It wasn't great and I don't ever need to see it again. It felt like... why bother? Nothing is ever really resolved and each of the four people is pretty loathsome and devoid of any morals so it is hard to root for anyone to "win". It helps that it is filled with pretty people but coming out of it I didn't feel like I enjoyed it or even really appreciated it all that much. Might be better as it was originally intended to be, a play.

My Grade: B+

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