Dec. 11, 2004 - 10:40 am

cover
Closer (2004)

well, as we all know, Mark eventually has to see any film starring Natalie Portman, and thus so does Jill. of course it doesn't hurt that Jude Law is in this one as well. i'm not a huge fan of Julia Roberts (whose name i can never remember for some odd reason), and Clive Owens is a wonderful actor, but he looks nothing like the man photographed in the posters for this film. it's quite odd really. anyway, we thought this one is likely to be an Oscar contender as well, so it would be great for us to see.

Closer was originally a stage play written by Patrick Marber. i was lucky enough to see my friend Colin in a performance of this play during our stint at UT. it's a tough one to get through. i referred to it last night as "filthy and gutwrenching." it's about two couples who become basically intertwined. they stay together while sleeping with each other, and it hurts them terribly. they keep getting back together but they hurt each other way too much for everything to be alright again. the main culprit is Dan, Jude Law's character, who becomes obsessed with Anna (Roberts). he is already with Alice (Natalie Portman) and decides that regardless, he must be able to be with Anna as well. he simply can't leave Alice because he's a coward and she is "unleaveable." Anna meets Larry (Owens) because of a joke that Dan plays on him and they get together, but Dan's interest in Anna eventually starts to ruin Larry's life as well. i better not go into any more than this because it's just very complicated. wonderful, but complicated.

Mike Nichols is one of those directors who often does films that seem complete genius like The Graduate (1967) or Working Girl (1988), but then he's also done some "what? why would you possibly think that would work?"-type films like Primary Colors (1998). we do still need to check out the Angels In America (2003) tv series he did last year. that won tons of awards as i remember.

i was fascinated that Natalie Portman would do this film. she used to have huge problems with anything that was negative or sexually oriented to any extent. i guess she figures at this point that she's an adult and the relationships between people are worth discussing on film in an intelligent and honest manner. ok, i'm going to stop trying to analyze her thoughts at this point. she did a great job and i thought the scene where she is trying to leave Dan was amazing. she knows that staying with him is wrong but she can't instantly stop loving him so she ask him to hold her and asks him if she can still see him. it's heartbreaking really.

i'd recommend you go see this film if you can handle seeing something that is, as i said, "filthy and gutwrenching." it's worth it.