Closer (2004)

Plan: While walking down the street one dismal day in London, Dan (Jude Law) spies Alice (Natalie Portman). She's hit by a car, and he takes her to the hospital. Dan meets Anna (Julia Roberts) when she photographs him for his book about Alice's life. Dan accidentally sets Anna up with Larry (Clive Owen). Dan and Alice attend Anna's show, where Dan discovers that Anna is dating Larry, and Larry meets Alice in front of her portrait.

I keep rolling around in my mind that stat that we've all heard. You know the one, that something like 60% of people cheat? But what is that really? People in monogamous relationships? Do they mean sexual intercourse when they say "cheat"? Kissing? Wanting said things?

Plot summaries are praising this movie for the way it deals with the "adult" themes of adultery, love, lust, sex, and betrayal.

Fair enough praise. Patrick Marber's screenplay, based on his play, is brutally honest about the relationships between men and women. It is, in fact, so insightful about said relationships that it reminds me of an Oscar Wilde play, only without the charm or comedy.

The only real problem I have with Marber's screenplay is that his characters lack even an iota of self-control. A character may appear scrupulous at first, but Marber makes it clear that a persistent person can easily wear them done.

Luckily, Mick Nichols takes an impressive and beautiful cast and pushes them as far as they are willing to go, which in some cases isn't all that far. Nichols has made a movie about sex without showing anything, which is a talent in itself, but he manages to make the ubiquitous sex talk simultaneously artless and artful.

With a whopping cast of six speaking parts, it's pretty easy to get into the individual characters (and why it must have worked well as a play).

I have said in the past that the more I see of Law, the less I like him. With, what, four or five movies opening this fall, how could I not get annoyed? Even so, I saw this one, and I will cautiously suggest that I may be able to like him again. He is not, at any rate, the sexiest man alive. Of course, that's because I have difficulty seeing him as a "man". The way he bats his girly eyelashes and always seems to be play these arrogant asses convinced of their own sex appeal doesn't really turn my crank. He made a pretty good Dan. Dan's a man who believes he deserves many a beautiful woman and has serious issues about his mommy. I buy that from Law.

The thing is, though, Law made it really hard to actually hate Dan. I oscillated between feeling sorry for him and thinking he felt a bit too sorry for himself, but I never really had a reason to demonize his character. The trailers, however, give Dan more of an edge. There are at least two exchanges with Anna in them that do not appear in the movie. If Dan had had that side to him that I saw there, I might have concerned myself with him at little more.

Natalie Portman has come back to us! Gone are the days of Natalie the Robot in the hands of useless George Lucas (yes, I realize that there will be a third movie, but I've chosen to block it out as best I can). Garden State first hinted at it. Portman was charming and sweet there, and under Nichols' tutelage, Portman has become a full fledged star. This is the precocious girl we instantly fell in love with in The Professional, Heat, and Beautiful Girls. She has grown into a sexy young woman full of passion and pathos. So protective was Nichols over Portman's nubile body that he had every trace of her nudity edited out (tricky thing considering her character's profession). I think he gets it though. Portman has finally arrived.

Will the real Julia Roberts please stand up? You know I think she plays the same character in every movie, and she seemed to get away from that here for a little while. Even so, I still felt like I was waiting. Waiting, waiting, always waiting for Roberts to show her true colours, to see what the rest of the world sees in her. Yes, she is gorgeous. I don't think I've ever seen her look so good. But what about the rest of it? Where's all this acting skill that the rest cling to? Roberts' mega-watt smile will never let her down, and I still hope that there's more to it than that.

Owen, who originated the stage character of Dan, is a wonderful ball of sexuality, fury, and embarrassment. I feel it was a cruel trick to set the boy Law up against the man Owen. He could eat pint-sized Law for lunch. Owen is just so masculine, and he's so confident in that masculinity that he's not afraid to play the hyper libido or misogyny that goes along with it. His performances are always restrained, but he's starting to let it out here.

One of the best parts of the movie, though, is everyone's style. Costumer designer Ann Roth has outdone herself. She embraces patterns on patterns (three at once and without a hint of fear), fantastic accessories, and minimalist colour. It's a delight for the eye, I tell you.

Despite it's repetitive nature, I even fell for the Damien Rice song, "The Blower's Daughter", that can be heard in the trailers, TV spots, and throughout the movie. Not to steal a page from the dear Jenelle, but I feel I should the lyrics with you:

And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes
And so it is
Just like you said it should be
We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time
And so it is
The colder water
The blower's daughter
The pupil in denial
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes
Did I say that I loathe you?
Did I say that I want to
Leave it all behind?
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind
'Til I find somebody new

So, to recap: a nice song, great costumes, and a lot of sex talk. Is that why I go to the movies? Did I really want someone to talk dirty to me while wearing some sassy earrings that I would want to borrow and hear some pretty song in the background? No. B-