On paper, Closer looks like fairly generic stuff. Four unfeasibly attractive leads, a story of love and interconnecting relationships set in London and a soundtrack tying in with the release of Damien Rice's ballad 'The Blower's Daughter'. But beneath the surface, it's a lot darker than you'd expect.

Adapted from former comedy writer Patrick Marber's hit play, Closer charts the lives of four main characters. The first scene sees obituary writer and aspiring novelist Dan (Jude Law) meeting American stripper Alice (Natalie Portman). They fall in love and the film fasts forward to Dan's meeting with Anna (Julia Roberts), an icy photographer. He becomes infatuated with her. She consequentially meets aggressive doctor Larry (Clive Owen) and they marry. The film then jumps back and forth to show the beginnings and endings of each and every relationship contained in the foursome.

To put it frankly, Closer is not a very nice film. Anyone hoping for a heart-warming tale of loves lost and won best look elsewhere. Instead it's an unremittingly brutal drama about the games people play and the ways they hurt one another. The leads may all look great but underneath they're all hugely unsympathetic, petty and malicious. For some critics this has been a major problem. How do you enjoy a film about heartache when no-one in the film has a heart?

I found the film to be darkly compelling. It's structure is brave, not giving away all the ins and outs of the relationships and begging the viewers to fill in the blanks. To imagine that at some point there must have been some happiness involved. There are some comic moments however, most notably Jude Law cruelly masquerading as a woman in a chat-room, causing an unsuspecting Clive Owen to fall hook line and sinker. But on the whole Closer is a fairly shattering look at how cruel people can be.

The screenplay, adapted by Patrick Marber himself, is full of sharp dialogue and frank, explicit discussions. The skill in the film is to have all the characters indulging in sex and talking about it yet never showing it in the film. The cast are all excellent, giving their best performances to date. Julia Roberts is brilliantly cold and emotionally vacant, going at odds with her regular image and giving one of her finest performances. Jude Law veers from being smug and vulnerable yet never likeable. Clive Owen and Natalie Portman have been winning all the awards and both are entirely deserving. Owen is a time-bomb of repressed anger and his vicious verbal attack on Julia Roberts is one of the film's highlights. Portman is wonderfully manipulative and deceptive yet still appearing at times hugely vulnerable.

Having turned off many by its coldness and honesty, Closer is definitely worth seeking out. For those who don't need their love stories to be coated in sugar and find cynicism refreshing, like me you'll see Closer as one of the year's potential best. Just don't expect a happy ending....

Closer website

Comment (0)

Send to friend

Print

Add to Facebook