A Filmed Play, But Alas a Well-Filmed, Very Moving Play

Rating: 9/10 (5 August 2008)

Closer could have been a perfect movie had it not been so faithful to the theatrical chemistry between characters in Patrick Marber's original play. The dialogue is very very clever, and despite its unrealistic airs, it works. But because of its rhythm and pace, which is powerful nonetheless, it still seems like a play. One should not see a movie and be reminded of watching a play, because suddenly the fact that it's a movie becomes meaningless. The oneness of an individual creative medium, no matter how much it may have in common with another, is very important to maintain, because it is nothing without its continuous substantiation and comprehension in the world, and the enjoyment of it is so extremely beautiful and impactful because it is full of inherited memories and influences of the creation and development of it.
Despite this, Closer is a very moving story exploding with incredible acting from its petit cast, Mike Nichols again drawing out the very best from each of his actors. His main achievement in directing this film is his treatment of his actors, whose power and consumption in their roles are so unremittingly personal portrayals that the unmistakable theatricality hardly deters them at all, which is why it is not an indefensible flaw.
Marber's characters are so deeply realized that they have the prevailing effect of truly real people, whose sexual experience has given them a collective conscious which affects the mature and wise emotional atmosphere of the movie, physicalized by the staggering current that connects these four people. Likewise, this film is a very emotional experience that moves you and makes life clearer for you, however much experience with sex and relationships you may have.