Review - Mike Nichols's Closer (3.5 out of 4 stars)

Closer is a damn tough film to watch. It’s a talky relationship-driven film, but the emotions and actions of the characters toss you under a speeding truck, pick you up, then dump you on the rails in front of a freight train. I guess it’s even tougher because we know that we’re capable of the same things. Heck, some of us may have done these things in the past or are doing them in the present or are thinking of doing them in the future. God forbid.



Jude Law and Natalie Portman (finally done with Amidala) are Dan and Alice, a couple who have a chance meeting, hit it off and become a couple. However, Dan keeps a torch burning for Anna, played by Julia Roberts. Finally, Clive Owen is Larry, who meets Anna as a result of a practical joke set up by Dan. Larry and Anna become a couple. The real problems begin when Dan and Anna commit an indiscretion.

This is a Mike Nichols film, so one shouldn’t expect anything ordinary or easy to digest. Nichols makes films on difficult subject matters, and in this one, he showcases just how much people who supposedly love and care deeply for each other can hurt each other. You open your heart to someone, you give them license to take a meat cleaver and chop your heart and soul into itsy-bitsy pieces in the most painful ways possible. Of course, many of us do just as the characters in Closer and utilize the meat cleaver appallingly well and often.

Natalie Portman and Clive Owen won Golden Globes for their work here. I only remember Clive from his horrid turn as King Arthur, and I still don’t really care for his gravelly voice, but he’s definitely and appropriately vicious here. I think he cut far deeper with words than he ever did with Excalibur. Now, as a card-carrying Natalie fan I’m happy to see her finally get to sink her teeth into something substantial. Her Alice is a complex character, needy and clingy but capable of being steely cold. She’s also a fantastic cocktease. Fans of Padme Amidala won’t recognize the stripper who gets one a table, strips naked, turns around and bends over for Clive Owen’s pleasure. Lucky bum. If they indeed excised a strip sequence from this segment, there are a lot of guys out there praying they add it back into the Closer Director’s Cut. That’ll sell like hotcakes.

I’m still not a Jude Law fan, and his work in Closer doesn’t do much to impress me more. Of the four characters, Dan was the blandest despite getting the most screen time. Very little texture to the character; very little development. Now, it’s always jarring to see Julia Roberts in anything but a romantic comedy. At the beginning I was half-expecting Hugh Grant to walk through the door. However, Julia does a credible performance as Anna, so I give her props for that. That’s how you do it, Meg Ryan. Show us your boobs and bush doesn’t make you a serious actress.

Bottom line: Closer is on my “need to see again” list, but it’ll have to get in line. It’s an excellent film, one that I can recommend to anyone who wants to see something thought-provoking.