Milkduds

Closer (6/10)

June 23rd, 2005

Closer (starring Julia Roberts as Anna, Jude Law as Dan, Clive Owen as Larry, and Natalie Portman as Alice) is the story of 2 couples (Anna/Larry, Alice/Dan) and how their lives are changed and effected by a love affair between a woman and man from each couple. It sounds confusing, but basically, Dan and Alice meet and fall in love, then Dan meets Anna and decides he’s fallen in love with her instead, but Anna won’t have him at first. Then, by fate, Dan meets Larry in a chat room and pretends to be Anna and gets Larry to come to an aquarium that Anna frequents. Larry shows up and meets Anna and falls in love. A year later, the two couples meet at a photography exhibit of Anna’s, where Dan once again professes his love to Anna, which she then accepts. After that, it’s a bumpy ride full of passion and betrayal.

Closer is an adapted screenplay written by the author of a stage play by the same name. This shows up in the screenplay and dialogue of the movie, which is a bad thing, in my opinion. I felt like I was watching a movie of a play - not because of the set or props - because of the dialogue spoken. On top of this, the words spoken between the characters are very explicit, which didn’t seem very realistic. I could see maybe one of the characters talking like that, but not all of them. Out of four people, at least one would be somewhat reserved and morally grounded, you would think. I will give it this, however: even though some of the speech is offensive, the conversations are striking and well acted. I’m not really sure why Clive Owen was nominated for and won awards for his performance, which I thought was the least of the 4 players. And since I’m used to seeing Julia Roberts as a sweetheart both on and off the screen, she seemed to be miscast and out of place. Criticism aside, I thought the acting overall was great, and the cinematography was also very nice.

Entry Filed under: Movies