An admirable stage to screen transfer which demands intelligent attention

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2011)

I first saw the outstanding Patrick Marber play, CLOSER, when it was on Broadway (172perf., March 25-Aug. 22, 1999, at the Music Box Theatre with the late Natasha Richardson in the Julia Roberts role following a successful run in London, where the play is set) and was enthralled with the cool cinematic dissection of the come-again-go-again relationship of four people. I liked the play so much that I somehow never got to the excellent film version with a well neigh perfect cast until recently on DVD.
Coming back to the piece a decade later, in a version which director Mike Nichols, working from the playwright's own screenplay, somewhat Bowdlerized (he eliminated the death of one character who now merely goes abroad and actually improved the opening of the Second Act in the Strip Club by reducing the "ick factor") in the vain hope of warming the piece for a broader audience, I am struck again with what a superb, un-sappy, universal examination it is of the motivations and mistakes which plague and bless interpersonal relationships. Many people will find this unromantic and cynical, but only if they are unprepared to accept how close the characters come to themselves or people they know in spirit if not in detail. People who thought the Prince/Sondheim/Furth musical COMPANY was somehow an attack on marriage rather than a statement of how essential "coupling" is to the human condition will simply not "get" this film.
Structurally, Marber still gives us a brilliant flow jumping back and forth in time and occasionally playing mirroring scenes overlapping each other. Under the earlier playwright's heavy influence, this is probably the best play Harold Pinter never wrote - improving on the master in Marber's clarity of vision and gift for real dialogue. All too often when a stage production glories in a "cinematic" approach, it is screwed up when it comes to the screen by a director who feels he must impose his own concept on the piece. CLOSER was blessed with the choice of Mike Nichols - a director who was sufficiently self assured not to have to worry about calling attention to himself, but merely serving the best in Marber's story.
The performances Nichols gets - from Julia Roberts as Anna the artist (unfairly criticized in some circles for precisely the emotionally inhibited quality which makes it real), Jude Law as Dan the striving author / obituary editor, Natalie Portman* (in the only fully professional performance I have ever seen from her - the director really does make a difference; witness her cheap scenery chewing in BLACK SWAN this year regardless of award nominations it may bring her) as Alice the damaged free spirit and the darkly sensuous and painfully insecure Clive Owen* as Larry the sex addict who finally finds a love he needs - are all as close to perfection as any audience could ask. (* = well deserved Oscar Nominations and Golden Globe AWARDS in "Support")
Although all of those involved have had bigger commercial hits, seldom have any of them done better actual work. CLOSER is not a film for the shallow or those who want fast, easy laughs or pat romantic solutions, but for an adult audience willing to engage their minds and pay attention, it's one of the great ones.