Closer

Both the play as well as the screenplay for the 2004 movie adaptation of Closer are written by Patrick Marber and tell the story of four people struggling with their relationships for each other. In the movie adaptation, directed by Mike Nichols, the characters are all played by very well known Hollywood actors. Because Closer originally is a play, the movie is very character driven, almost leaving no space to show beauty shots of landscapes or showing shots of characters being completely silent. Being only the second time I've seen it, at some points it does make you wonder why they adapted the play to the screen when little is done with using cinematic elements. But even though a question like this rises up, Closer does work very well as a film and a lot of films nowadays that aren't trying to be all arty, are mostly just telling stories. In Closer it's the characters and the dialogue which carry the film and the scenes follow each other very fast. It's very much an actors kind of film, who are fully given the chance to set up a character and filling in its colours. Of all the performances I felt Natalie Portman to be the most impressive, truly excelling in her portrayal of Alice. In every one of her scenes she comes off really strong. From the beginning you never feels she gives away too much of her true self. She's the one who keeps most of herself a secret and who seems to be having the most difficulty trusting people. In a way you also feel she likes to torture herself with not letting her get to close to people and keeping secrets. She's sweet but also can be very cruel in order to protect herself. Portman blew me away showing she can really transform into someone else and proved she could very well handle the character she played. Even though he did transform into someone else other than himself, Jude Law's performance as Dan kind of left me cold. After seeing him in The Talented Mr. Ripley for a second time, I don't think it would be fair to just call him a bad actor. Afterall he does show change. However I didn't like the direction he took with Dan. At the beginning you really feel Dan to be a bit stuck up, all polite, kind of soft and his accent was very present, which at first bothered me, but later on when it softened a bit, made me realise that I kind of liked that part of Dan and that it really fitted him. But then after those first couple of minutes he suddenly shows a completely different side of himself when being with Anna. I felt that whole innocent, nerdy kind of guy, was completely gone and he turned more into a guy who isn't that sincere in his feelings towards women but just likes to play games. I do understand that he tried to give his character multiple layers, but I felt he should have peeled those away more gently, instead of shedding them all at once. It was like he didn't have anything left to develop and I feel it would have been better if he let out his other side through the polite guy he was in the beginning, instead of just changing all of that at once. Towards the end I just felt I didn't really know who he was and didn't care for Dan at all. I didn't feel he showed anything. Even if he was hiding his feelings, he didn't show it. He was kind of blank and empty at most times. Both Julia Roberts and Clive Owen did much better jobs. Roberts gave a very nice and subtle performance making her character seem like a victim on the outside while deep down she was actually the worst one out of the four. As a viewer she really made you care for her, pretending she just was taken over by loving feelings and couldn't help falling in love with Dan, even though she was very aware of what she did and seemed to very much enjoy their love making sessions at her own house. But at the same time you sometimes felt she wasn't really aware of the harm she did. She just seemed to be thinking very easy about the actions she took. Sleeping with someone else didn't seem to be that big of a deal to her. Clive Owen who played Larry was perfectly cast just like Natalie Portman. With his rough voice and appearance he made himself look as a though guy who would be able to really hit women when getting mad. However, of all the characters he's the softest one. His calm voice and gestures make him look very confident and cocky, but deep down he's the one who is hurt the most and is most vulnerable. He seems to be the least fit to carry all the weight of the lies and cheating the characters endure and although he comes of as the one who's most in control of his emotions, he really isn't. Altogether these performances are very strong and take the movie to a whole new level. Because of the important role of the characters, it's a must to have them portrayed very well. Fortunately in Closer this is very well achieved.

What is it about?

Alice, a young girl from New York and Daniel, a Brit living in London, spot each other while walking down the street. Their gazes tangle and get stuck for a moment until Alice is hit by a car. Dan immediately helps her out and get her to a hospital. With no heavy injuries but just some bruises and scratches they sit talking while waiting for a doctor to show. Short thereafter they make for a walk around London town in which Dan reveals he's an obituary writer and Alice a stripper. Next Dan is seen together with Anna, a photographer who takes Dan's picture for the cover of the book he wrote. Anna who is having her own exposition very soon, seems to be attracted more to Dan than she wants to admit. They kiss even though she knows Dan and Alice are living together for quite a while since they've met. When Alice shows up at Anna's place to meet up with Dan she overhears a conversation between the two and finds out they are strongly attrackted to each other. Later on Dan is having a sexually tinted chat with a stranger on the internet and gives himself out as Anna. He sets up a meeting between the real Anna, who always hangs out at the London Aquarium and the guy with whom he was having a chat. The stranger turns out to be Larry, a dermatologist, who isn't aware of the prank Dan has put up. Coincidentally Anna is present when Larry gets to the aquarium to meet her. Even though it was all a joke set up by Dan the two start talking and become seriously involved with each other and when the four of them attend Anna's exposition she presents Larry as being her new boyfriend. However Anna and Dan seem to be attracted to each other still and set out to have an affair from that evening without both their partners knowing. Being all tangled up into this square of lovers the four have to decide how to go on with their relationships and whether to keep living lies or be compeltely honest with their partners.

Final Verdict: ****1/2

With Closer director Mike Nichols has made a very solid drama which is very well written and features great performances. Because of the central focus on the four characters all four actors get to have a lot of screen time and are really given the chance to show what they're made of and are given the opportunity to really build up their characters. Filled with emotion and complexity Closer is a treat for everyone who loves a story about betrayal and people who torture each other with telling lies and keeping their loved once on the line. The conversations between the characters feel very natural, the dialogue is smart and realistic. Each character is very well written with it's own persona and own part in this big love web. The film has a very strong structure without ever a dull moment. As a viewer you feel to be totally involved in the character's relationship with one another and taken away on their journey to battle out their way through. Patrick Marber talks about the construction of the play as being: 'something that has a formal beauty into which you could shove all this anger and fury. I hoped the dramatic power of the play would rest on that tension between elegant structure – the underlying plan is that you see the first and last meeting of every couple in the play – and inelegant emotion.' When looking at the different shots, the most interesting once came up during Alice's and Larry's meeting in the strip club Alice works in. Showing some really nice shots from different angles, the scene kind of felt like a jigsaw puzzle, showing both characters from all these different positions. One shot is even taken from the top showing the setting and characters from above, as if there was a real camera hanging down the ceiling as Alice implied there was. Music wise Damien rice's song The Blowers Daughter fits Closer perfectly both lyrically as melodically. The song is like hearing someone breath softly and felt to be standing for all the thoughts that were running inside Alice's head as she was trying to make sense of all the things the others did to her. As a whole Closer is a very nice achievement, showing four wonderfully written characters who challenge each other and who don't give away the direction they eventually are set out to take, not until the very end.