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Review: Closer

Okay, I watched Closer for the same reason I watched Garden State, namely to drool over the hotness that is Natalie Portman. In that respect, Garden State was more enjoyable because it was easy to pretend to be Zach Braff’s character and enjoy watching Natalie fall for you. In this film, everybody is really nasty to each other, so it wasn’t as satisfying on that level. But she still has plenty of screen time, and as a bonus, her character is a stripper! Unfortunately, you don’t really get to see her naked. But hey, just the idea is still pretty damn cool.

Of course, as a film, Closer is much harder to judge, as it’s pretty different from most other films. It revolves around two couples whose lives intertwine in complex and nasty ways. Jude Law plays Dan, a writer of obituaries who hooks up with Alice (Natalie Portman) in a typical “meet cute” fashion. But the rest of the film is far from typical, and I do have to give director, Mike Nichols (Angels in America, The Graduate, and Primary Colors, among many others), and writer, Patrick Marber, some credit for taking chances. For one, there are essentially only four characters, and none of them are particularly sympathetic, except perhaps Alice (although I might be a bit biased there). Secondly, it abruptly shifts in time from scene to scene, which is jarring. For example, when we next see them, Dan has written a novel about Alice and is having his book jacket photograph taken by Anna (Julia Roberts), to whom he is instantly attracted to.

Unfortunately, Julia Roberts is the weakest link. First of all, she is not nearly as attractive as Natalie Portman, so Dan is just being a stupid and blind idiot to be even considering cheating on Alice. Second of all, she is completely uncompelling and lifeless, like she was sleepwalking through the whole film. I really wonder what this film could have been if Cate Blanchett had been available for the role. I know that David Edelstein absolutely loved Roberts in this, but my take on that is that critics are always a sucker for underplayed performances. But here, where balance between the four characters is so essential, she is completely overshadowed by the other three.

Especially since she’s coupled with Clive Owen, who puts in a real tour de force. Admittedly, he has the most interesting character of the four in Larry, the horny and volatile dermatologist. And he played the role of Larry in the original stage play, so it’s not so surprising that he’s clearly comfortable in the character. Owen is the only actor here that is not a household name (probably best known as “The Driver” in The Hire, that cool series of BMW short films), but he infuses Larry with a fiery intensity that is pretty awesome to behold. Clive Owen is definitely an actor to keep an eye on.

Jude Law and Natalie Portman do fine, but Law’s character resembles one that he’s played several times before (most recently in Alfie and I Heart Hucklebees). Portman has her moments, but most of what’s going on with Alice is beneath the surface. It’s a solid, but unspectacular performance. Much better than her dreadful turns in those Star Wars films (which has probably more to do with Lucas than her), but that ain’t sayin much.

The chemistry between the couples is uneven. Julia Roberts doesn’t seem to click with anybody, and thus Dan’s fascination with the dull and weary Anna is just completely mystifying. For Portman, the chemistry is slightly better with her and Law, but not so much with Owen, even in that one artshow clip they keep showing as she makes the talkshow rounds. And their scene in the strip club is mostly just… weird. Plus, the editing there seems rather choppy, and it drags on way too long (which is surprising, coming from someone who obviously shouldn’t mind ogling Natalie Portman in skimpy outfits).

As I mentioned before, the time shifting is terribly distracting, as the audience becomes disoriented for a few minutes at the beginning of each scene. The idea is to show just the awful and intense moments of each relationship. This does make for very compelling viewing, especially the first two breakups, which intercut between scenes of Larry and Alice bombarding their unfaithful lovers with questions about the intricate sexual details of their affairs. However, the overall effect is fragmentary, destroying any sense of flow or unity.

The film has its strong points. There are some surprising developments to keep things interesting, including a pretty interesting twist at the end (not nearly in the same league as Sixth Sense, but one that I didn’t see coming), and the dialogue is definitely very sharp and witty. Dan’s encounter with Larry in an Internet chat room makes for an absolutely hilarious scene. And it’s a pretty interesting exploration of the incredible psychological power that sex has. Surprisingly, there’s hardly any sex on screen. What you see is mostly the collateral damage afterwards.

But in the end, while it makes for some provocative viewing and is quite different fare from most movies you’ll see, it comes up a bit short. I know a lot of other people say otherwise, but I don’t think the acting is quite compelling enough to carry the film, especially because of Roberts. The lack of a character to identify with and root for really hampers the film, and in the end the whole thing feels more like an exercise than a real movie.

There is one question that haunts me, and this might be a bit of a spoiler, so you might want to stop reading this and go look at something else and why are you still reading this I guess that means you’re not worried about spoilers and it’s not like plot was really the central piece of this film anyway so here it is now. Anyway, I wonder how much of the film was orchestrated by Alice? It seemed like the whole smoking thing was important. And due to the time shifts, we don’t see all of her interactions with Anna and Larry…

Overall rating: 6.5 out of 10 cute smiley fishies.