Closer (2004)

Closer is a must see for anyone who is half intelligent, and understands that a romantic comedy is not the only genre that can be considered as being entertaining. This is not your normal 'love story'. It is purely a reflection of real life about relationships. It deals with the truth in relationships and the areas that most people may not like to talk about. The focus for me (and perhaps the intention), are the four only characters in the film. This in some ways is a psychological film in that it is mostly about the characters. The young Alice who is impulsive, insecure, vulnarable but strong, just needs love and a true reflection of a 20 something year old female (whether you like to believe it or not girls!). Alice's on and off partner Dan, who is indecisive, likes to please and still a boy at heart rather than a man. Clive Owen who plays a shovanist and at times sexually aggressive and vulgar man but with a lot of intelligence. Anna, who marries him, a professional with a normal life but who is looking for more than that ( to be in love but afraid to be). It is Clive Owen's character and Alice who are the ones that want to fight for their own relationships and need that enternal love from their partners. And its Dan and Anna who stray from their relationships and have an affair with each other (but are they really in love with each other?). Dan doesn't really know what he wants. Alice wants him. Clive Owen's character wants to 'own' Anna. Anna with a lot of guilt actually wants to be free of her confined relationship and be happy with someone who can make her happy (in this instance Dan). This film is about four relationships interlinked and nothing else! The best film I have ever seen and I am not easily impressed by many! If you don't get it like many people, I suggest you watch it over and over again because 9 times out of 10 you probably have missed something. Enjoy!

Closer - I know nothing of the original book or play so went to this with an open mind and found it extremely frustrating as opposed to entertaining. It was only the performances of the main characters being so brilliant and believable that made it at all watchable.

Closer is a fabulous film that well deserves all the plaudits it has been receiving. I originally saw the play on Broadway about 5 years ago and thought it was very dark and very moving. We were interested to see how it would be interpreted as a movie (even though we didn't remember much about the play) and were very very impressed.

In case you need to know, it's the story of four people, 2 male 2 female, and the relationships between them. It starts out with Dan (Jude Law) meeting Alice (Natalie Portman) and embarking on a relationship with her. It them jumps forward in time to where he meets Anna (Julia Roberts) and falls for her, but doesn't want to leave Alice and then Anna meets Larry (Clive Owen) and starts seeing him. It's based around the complex interaction of the four characters, how they care for and hurt each other and the development of the relationships between Dan & Alice, Dan & Anna and Anna & Larry. It's not full of action, but you do come to care for the very tragically flawed foursome over the course of the film, which takes place across several years.

About the nature of the film, they shot the movie almost as if it were a play, basing it around the dialogue and the interaction between the 4 main characters, using a minimal number of sets (more than in the stage version) which added atmosphere and helped to establish an almost claustrophobic and smothering sensation in regard to the relationships between the main characters. The actors were all wonderful and it was nice to finally see Jude Law get to showcase his talents instead of his pretty face and appear in a film actually worth watching.

My only real gripe was the fact that the film was surprisingly rated 15, not 18, despite some very explicit language and a couple of rather graphic discussions. Nothing was shown, only discussed, which is why, I assume, the rating was what it was, but the language was intrinsic to the plot development and was very adult. The screening we saw was full of young teenagers who clearly found this very amusing and giggled and shouted their way through a very serious and very intense film, which did rather ruin the atmosphere.

On the whole, if you can deal with a film in which not much really happens and that is based around dialogue rather than action, you'll find Closer a moving and exceptional piece of cinema.