Closer

 Closer 2004

• Director: Mike Nichols
• Seen by this director: Angels in America, Wit, Primary Colours, The Birdcage, Wolf, Postcards from the Edge, Working Girl, Silkwood, Carnal Knowledge, Catch 22, The Graduate, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
• Based on the play by: Patrick Marber
• Cast: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Natalie Portman – Annihilation, Thor, Black Swan, The Other Boleyn Sister, Darjeeling Limited, Paris je t’aime, V for Vendetta, Star Wars etc, Cold Mountain, Anywhere but Here, Mars Attacks, Beautiful Girls, Heat, Léon
• Jude Law – Genius, Black Sea, Sherlock Holmes 1&2, Hugo, Contagion, Repo Men, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sleuth, Holiday, Breaking and Entering, The Aviator, Alfie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Cold Mountain, Road to Perdition, AI Artificial Intelligence, eXistenz, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gattaca, Wilde
• Julia Roberts – August Osage County, Fireflies in the Garden, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Full Frontal, Erin Brockovich, Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Michael Collins, Mary Reilly, The Pelican Brief, Hook, Sleeping with the Enemy, Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias
• Clive Owen – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Elizabeth the Golden Age, Children of Men, Derailed, Beyond Borders, Gosford Park, Croupier
• Why? The cast.
• Seen: Once before. Now 31 July 2022      

       Dan (Law) and Alice (Portman). Anna (Roberts) and Larry (Owen).

       Infidelity, vulnerability, regret, set-ups, misunderstandings, lies, truths.

       With lesser actors this would seem pointless and annoying. With them, it’s almost addicting. Both Law and Owens, who usually play nice guys, are thoroughly unsavoury here. Portman is the victim (or is she?). Roberts is filled with guilt (and so she should be).

       Love hurts. Love is brutal.

       I’m so glad that I don’t know people like this. At least I don’t think I do. Are people really like this? I feel so naïve. What a mess people make of their lives. What a peculiar film. What brilliant acting. 

4* of 5