Basic emotions underneath city sophistication

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2005)

If you've watched 5x2, you might notice that the French are more open minded than the English, as they do not hold back signing the divorce document as a condition for having one last go for old time's sake. They do it anyway, AFTER signing the document, with no strings attached. But I'm running ahead here.
The way the story is moved forward in Closer is cryptic, probably because it is adapted from a play. There is little use of motion picture montage as the movie jumps from scene to scene in very much the same way it would do on stage, letting the dialogue explain the passage of time and occurrence of events.
The younger pair Alice (Natalie Portman) from New York and Dan (Jude Law) the local meet in London by accident (as a matter of fact, literally, in AN accident). The older pair's encounter is a little more complicated. Recently separated Anna (Julia Roberts) is Dan's photographer (portray for his book), and she meets Larry (Clive Owen) the dermatologist through a practical joke Dan plays on Larry, his sex ICQ encounter. After a few brisk scenes which I wouldn't belabour here, Larry and Anna's happy married life, as well as Alice and Dan's blissful cohabiting, are jeopardised when Dan and Anna start to have an affair. The double break-up is followed by a chance encounter between Larry and Alice at a strip joint, where she has resumed her former profession. This opens up opportunities for devious manoeuvres, double-crossing, betrayals as well as revelation of an array of human emotions on the dark side  jealousy, doubt, vindictiveness.
This film strives on slick, witty, snappy city-smart dialogue. It also seems to go to extraordinary length to depict one's reaction to the spouse having sex with another. This is a little puzzling, as the reaction would be painfully predictable.
Out or the four principals who carry equal billing, through some mysterious process, two (Owen and Portman) have been nominated for best supporting actor and actress respectively for the Golden Globe, and won. Owen displays a very watchable feat of transforming from a pitiable victim to a ruthless avenger. Law starts out demonstrating convincingly the wisdom of casting him for the remake of "Alfie", and later picks up the role Owen dropped, that of a victim. Portman is a simple and sweet irony, with innocence oozing from a superficially erotic and seductive persona. Roberts in this movie uncharacteristically does not seem to have found a comfortable niche that she usually has.
An interesting movie, I won't hesitate to say, but can't help leaving the cinema with a little bit of a much-ado-about-nothing feeling.