Review: Closer (2004)

By: Aaron Jankowski

To call Closer a love story is to only understand half of its brilliance.
This brilliantly written film is more so about lust, revenge and sadness. Love is there, but it seems out of place in this drama directed by Mike Nichols.

The story revolves around a love triangle between Dan, an obituary writer and faltering author (Jude Law); Anna, a photographer (Julia Roberts); and Larry, a doctor played brilliantly by Clive Owen. On the outside of the triangle is poor Alice, a striper, played by Natalie Portman in one of her best roles.

Though Dan is with Alice, he is passionate about Anna, and though Anna is married to Larry, she can’t help but feel for Dan.
The underlining truth in this film is every one of the characters is terribly flawed and weak.

At a showing of Anna’s photography, all the characters meet for the first time in a year.

The first half of the movie meanders long at a slow pace as all the characters meet, fall in love and make their beds. Though, the second half takes off with Dan telling Alice he is in love with Anna, and they have had an affair for a year. When Anna tells Larry, who she is now married to, the same thing, the result is one of the most powerful exchanges I have ever seen in film (NOTE: Clive Owen owns two of my top five powerful moments.)

Larry’s reaction to Anna’s news is so powerful; it makes you feel awkward and uneasy watching his explosion of rage, guilt and passion.

The verbal spare between Owen and Roberts is acting at its finest.
Both Larry and Anna are powerful, unrelenting. Whereas, Alice and Dan find themselves battling back tears as Alice can’t help but still love him.

Law, though far from the worst actor in the film, is out matched by Portman in their scenes, and completely blown out of the water by Owen, who in the second half plays his character with pure dark brooding anger, all-be-it with a beautiful tinge of dark humour.
What follows is a perverse game of cat and mouse, as the characters betray their spouses, and their own hearts in the name of love.
There is no hero. No villain. No one wins in this story.

Alice sums the film up perfectly when she talks about Anna’s photography: “It’s a lie. It’s a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully and all the glittering assholes who appreciate art say its beautiful cause that’s what they want to see. But the people in the photos are sad and alone, but the pictures make the world look beautiful.”

The best part about Closers score is its absence. At the movies most intense moments, Nichols allows the actor’s emotions to be alone. Raw and powerful.

Closer is incredibly powerful, and like all good films that pluck at real emotions, can be uneasy to watch.

SCORE: 7/10
ACTING: 10/10
EFFECTS/VISUAL: 7/10
WRITING: 10/10
DIRECTING: 10/10

OVERALL: 44/50

TAKE AWAY THOUGHT: If you are a fan of Clive Owen, see this film. If you are not a fan of Clive Owen, you MUST see this film. Let him change your mind. This movie teaches us once thing: Everybody is capable of cheating.