Great script, great cast, great arse

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2004)

Closer is witty, clever and compelling and there is great chemistry between Law, Roberts, Portman and Owen who leave their star status behind and really embody the characters. The themes of trust, honesty and jealousy are familiar but conveyed brilliantly and innovative by Nichols. It also contains some rather revealing scenes of Natalie Portman as a stripper for all the red-blooded males out there.
It is clear from the start that the material is adapted from a play - the above four are essentially the only characters in the whole film, it is entirely dialogue-based and there are temporal ellipses throughout. Whereas in the theatre the characters would leave the stage and the curtain would go down to mark each year or so gap, the cinema audience has to figure out the breaks for itself and it can occasionally be quite confusing.
But Closer is a treat - a Best Of compilation of relationships without the forgettable sugary bits in between.