Vulgar dialogue doesn't make a good film

Rating: 3/10 (26 March 2005)

Having only seen a TV ad for this movie, and based on the poster, I was expecting a romantic comedy or love story - some sort of "chick flick" - wrong. Being a fan of Natalie Portman, it expected that her presence would make the film worthwhile, and I like Julie Roberts too. After enduring the movie I had to wonder why Julie, and more so Natalie, would chose to be a part of something this (verbally) graphic and vulgar. I can only assume she wanted to "demonstrate her versatility" or some such thing. It's a safe bet George Lucas would not be pleased to see Queen Amidala spreading her legs wide - I joked at the time that "now we know what drives Anakin Skywalker to become Darth Vader".
All four actors do their job well enough, and the cinematography likewise gets a passing grade, although it's - appropriately enough - dark. Aside from the somewhat jarring presence of porn dialogue in a love story, this film's main failing is that you don't care that these characters are destroying their own relationships. Natalie's character is the most sympathetic, but all four suffer from their own bad choices. One of them even says "you made the choice" to cheat - it doesn't "just happen" as is so often the excuse.
There are probably real people whom are as weak - even pathetic - as the four in "Closer", but I don't want to watch them, and worse pay to do so.