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by Jim Pappas Published: December 1, 2004
 The Fatal Foursome: From L to R: Larry (Clive Owen), Alice (Natalie Portman), Anna (Julia Roberts) and Dan (Jude Law) Most of us who've either been in love, or are currently in love, recognize and accept certain truths about our relationships. That recognition and acceptance is of those things that lie at the heart of any sexual relationship. Director Mike Nichols new film, "Closer," is an examination of our human concepts and practice of love, including those dark and ugly things that see the light of day all too often, and some of the nobler aspects of "the highest emotion." Besides baring sexual love to exposure and scrutiny, "Closer" is about four distinct personalities and how they cope with the stresses of relationships. Jude Law is Dan, an obituary column writer for a London newspaper. Julia Roberts is Anna, a photographer. Natalie Portman is Alice, a stripper from New York. Clive Owen is Larry, a dermatologist. Togther these four meet each other in London and form a relationship with each other that both works and doesn't work. Dan is a rather shallow man whose idea of love is based purely on self-interest. Alice is a woman-child who thinks love is based on need. Anna's personality is the most confusing of the four since she seems to be the most grounded and mature, but she also seems to possess some underlying anger that is motivational as well as self-destructive. I'm not entirely sure Ms. Roberts was not, herself, angry about something that carried over into her performance, but of the four leading actors I found her portrayal the least effective. Larry is the sexaholic doctor, almost a cariacture who, in the end, stands out as the one person with the best understanding of what love is really all about, and I would like to add that Clive Owen steals this film with his performance. Alice? Well, she is like someone many of us probably know, young and foolish, but at the same time vulnerable and hard. Natalie Portman shows growth as an actress with her portrayal of Alice as someone who possesses an independent spirit but is terribly insecure, ultimately. The film opens with a chance meeting between Dan and Alice, as he witnesses her being struck by a car (she's an American, in London, do the math) and he takes her to the hospital. Dan meets Anna later, after he has published a novel and she is photographing him as part of the publicity campaign surrounding the release of his book. He is smitten with her immediately, and she with him, but by this time Dan and Alice are involved with each other. Larry enters the picture after Dan, in an attempt to punish Anna, logs onto an on-line sex chat website and he lures Larry into meeting Anna. Dan's ploy backfires, however, as Anna and Larry eventually form a relationship that begins the unusual quadrangle formed by all of them. Written by Patrick Marber, originally as a play, "Closer" is an adult film, with adult dialogue and adult characters. It works hard to be an honest appraisal of our human condition, and succeeds for the most part. What fails in "Closer" as a film is that the movie moves back and forth through time, which I found to be an affectation more than an original artistic statement. There have been a spate of films recently, "21 Grams" and "Alexander" serving as examples, that tell their story in a kind of non-linear fashion. It is as if there is a "fad" among directors to try to tweak the general concept of "narrative" and include odd or non-contextual jusxtapositions of scenes within their films. I just hope that someone doesn't go too far with it. "Closer" is an ambitious effort, and as I said above, that works, mostly. Much of what happens to the people in the film rings true, but left out of the mix are some of the tender moments, where the animal instincts are drowned out by something of a higher nature. We do exist as emotional beings, but we also exist as cognitive beings. We have a choice, animals do not. I am not implying that Mike Nichols and Co. failed to make known that human beings are more than just animals, I am implying that including that aspect within the parameters defined by the story would have enriched his film. Overall Rating: B |
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