Wants to be so much more than it is

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2004)

*Major League Spoilers - forget about it!*
First: taken as a whole, the movie is pointless. It opens with a shot of Jude Law and Natalie Portman walking towards each other. Ends with a shot of Nat just walking, with no cutting to Jude. This is a common technique that encourages people to think about the character and how he (or in this case, she) has changed, or at least what choices they made and what the consequences of those choices were. OR at the very, VERY least, we are meant to feel empathy for what the character has gone through. I felt none of these things. The movie has a few brutal moments, but never builds on them, instead it meanders through the characters' relationships, often in unmotivated ways, and occasionally in forced ways. It's a shame, because the few moments of brutality (I mean emotionally brutal, not physically brutal) are so promising, so compelling, so powerful, that you WANT the movie to draw you in and show you the awful things people are capable of doing when they are hurt. But instead, it teases us with a few of these moments, then abandons them in favor of long stretches of oh-so-clever dialogue, or arbitrary plot twists.
Ultimately, the film was unsatisfying. It tried my patience several times and in the end did not deliver. Having said that I can report that the performances are fantastic. The film might be a commercial success on the basis of hints of profundity and the performances turned in by the four players.
Clive Owen caught my attention in King Arthur (a movie I disliked), and in this movie he takes it up a notch, exploding onto the screen. He delivers every moment he is on screen. The scene with Natalie in the club is brutal and true. In my opinion, this guy is a star, period.
Natalie Portman is simply stunning. Every time I see her in a movie, she outdoes herself. Just when I think she's going to slip, just when I think she's going to bore me by repeating herself (in terms of repeating a performance from a past role), she reaches down deep and grabs a little bit more of my psyche, and makes me a fan all over again. She sets the bar higher every single time, then catapults over it, leaving me in awe. My high expectations - which I expect to be disappointed are instead surpassed.
I don't like Julia Roberts, but I didn't mind her in this role. I hope she grows up (now that she's a mommy) and starts bringing a serious emotional component to her work.
I don't like Jude Law. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what the big deal is with this guy. I saw this movie with a friend and he told me Jude Law apparently prefers supporting/ensemble roles. OK, I'll bite. Let's see how he does in the future.
And Mike Nichols..... I don't get it? Why him? Because this a play? I don't get it.