Strange and sad

Rating: 5/10 (5 December 2006)

At first I was enthralled with this film, as I could (perhaps sadly) clearly recognize all the emotions of the participants, those emotions having to do with loving someone and having an affair with another person, i.e. actually loving two people in different ways. It reinforced my feeling that one person is not enough; that we do need others for different things in our life, a main one being sex.
I also had to say that I thought it was clever how any other person who was absolutely not essential was excised from the scene. You were aware that other people existed in the world of these four very troubled individuals (Julia, Jude, Natalie, Clive), but that no one and nothing else mattered except them.
As the film went on, though, I was struck by slopping editing, too bright or unrealistic lighting, inexplicable shots (the most disturbing being when Natalie was at the door in Jude's apartment, the camera first was behind them, showing them standing at the door naturally; then, suddenly the camera did a close-up on Natalie, then continued to cut back and forth between those two angles -- it looked awkward and unnatural). In addition, the dialog was so terse that while it might have sounded great on a stage, on screen it was like, "People don't talk like this!" Natalie's lines, in particular, were mainly one-word responses like, "Irrelevant!" -- It got old fast, and it did not remotely seem real.
The actors did a good job, but the only one who I found believable was Clive Owen, and I liked his character the least (I guess he must have been doing a great job). He was a pathetic, misogynistic, sex addict who desperately needed love and yet was a cruel, sad excuse for a man.
Jude has a distinctive style that sets him apart from other actors -- he somehow seems to inhabit his own universe and I always feel lucky to be invited into it, even if it's for a brief two hours. I felt he was quite vulnerable and he was given the unfortunate job of participating in two plot points that I found absolutely unbelievable: 1) In a borderline (intentionally) humorous "sex chat" between him and Clive (Clive thinking that he's a woman), he "sets up" a meeting for them. Clive shows up and who does he find (the person he is supposed to): Julia. Well, unless Jude was living inside Julia's mind and could also predict the next 24 hours of her life, there is no way in hell he would have known where she was going to be, so this was totally absolutely unrealistic. I didn't buy it for a second; and 2)That he, an obituary writer had written some book about Natalie's ("Alice") life -- okay, fair enough, but then the book comes and goes (it's a bomb apparently), and he goes back to being an obit writer. I did not get a remote sense that he had written anything and the film asks us to believe that Julia Roberts is photographing him for the book's jacket cover... and we have to ascertain all this information and details as it's presented to us all out of context... and then, at some point later, when it becomes clear that the book has bombed (we never see a copy and only hear that it tell's "Alice's" story), we are asked to accept that Jude goes back to his obit writing as if nothing had ever happened and as if nothing will ever happen again. I got no sense of him as anything, except when he was sitting for Julia's photos. It was the only moment in the film where he seems to be truly alive -- perhaps that was the point, I don't know.
As for Natalie, I was actually saddened to see her in this film. She is so beautiful, not in a sexual way, but in a kind, honest, truthful way, and so much better than almost every script she's been given... that I just couldn't understand why she did this part. I could not accept for a heartbeat that she was a stripper. She looks like someone who might be engaged in a good will cause, or dishing out food at a soup kitchen. She did not convey anything remotely sexual, and seeing her slip into a G-string only made me think she was some kind of exotic animal that had been trapped and forced to perform a trick. I really disagree with the casting on this part.
And for Julia: I have to say that I was shocked that Julia Roberts took part in this film, because she strikes me as being an actress that has a legacy to protect, someone like an Audrey Hepburn. In other words, the last thing I want to associate with Julia is a scene where she talks about Jude Law's cum being sweeter than Clive Owen's. Also, she looked tired, depressed, sad, older... all the things she perhaps was supposed to look like/be... but I also got a "What the hell did I agree to do?" look running across her face for the majority of the film. I believe Julia is capable of something much greater, but I don't think she's gotten close since "Erin Brockovich." At any rate, ultimately, the supposedly clever dialog of this film and these people's ultimately pointless lives makes one (or at least me) walk away saying, "And...? Who cares?"