Julia and Jude star, but Natalie and Clive sparkle

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2004)

Although Julia Roberts and Jude Law would be considered the leading actress and actor of this film, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman are the ones who really stand out. In the film, Portman plays a young stripper/waitress, Alice, who falls in love and moves in with Law's Dan, who repeatedly cheats on her with Robert's Anna, who keeps seeing him even when she marries Owen's Larry. Alice is both innocent and nasty, being the first one hurt by Anna and Dan's affair and the second to seek revenge. She comes off as the wisest and least nasty of the four, but that doesn't mean she's clean. On the contrary, Larry is very nasty. His obsession with and devotion to Anna is very genuine, and when he finds out about the affair, he interrogates her in a way so crude and tough it would put any police interrogator to shame. He comes off as the cleverest, the one who knows how to pit one lover against the other and come out on top. Although Anna and Dan are the two that begin the battle of affections, Alice and Larry are the ones who play the game and end the war.