A Well Acted, well made Cynical Romance

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2007)

It has been 41 years since Mike Nichols made his highly acclaimed relationship drama 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' At the time of its release, that film was considered scandalous for it use of foul language. Today, it still retains all of its power yet seems relatively tame.
This is not to say that Nichols has lost his touch for drama or conflicts within relationships. His newest film, 'Closer' is one of his best films to date (fairly impressive considering he made 'The Graduate') It tells the story of four singles living in London.
Anna (Julia Roberts) is a photographer who is recently divorced. Roberts gives a very strong performance, however it is hard to handle hearing America's sweetheart (A.K.A. "Our Pretty Woman") speak so freely about certain sexual activities. She is hired to take Dan's (Jude Law) photograph for a book jacket. Dan is a journalist by trade (He writes obituaries.) the photo however is for his book that has a chance at being published. The book was inspired by Dan's current flame Alice (Natalie Portman) a gal who never lets you get too close to the person inside. Dan is attracted to Anna, but is met with a flat rejection.
Posing as Anna in an online sex chatroom (good thing the little kids cannot read) Dan unknowingly sets up Anna with Dr. Larry (Clive Owen). The foursome form some sort of weird spiral whereby they are constantly changing their partners.
The cast is excellent without exception. Oddly enough, the best pair of performances do not belong to the two megastars in the cast (Roberts & Law), Portman strikes every note perfectly. We are not sure that we know enough about Alice and Portman performance suggests we never will. As for Clive Owen, he is absolutely merciless, as Larry we somehow come to fear him. He has a looming presence without even standing up. He holds your attention, it's a violent performance. Not in the physical sense, Larry uses words, sharp words, to get what he wants. Owen was without a doubt Oscar worthy, to bad they threw Morgan Freeman his well deserved bone.
The writing is pitch perfect ammunition for the cast to unload on the audience. The screenplay was written by Patrick Marber based on his play and it is some of the best writing for film in the last 10 years.
Nichols still has the chops and audacity to stay current and this film was as unsettling to me as 'Virginia Woolf' or 'Carnal Knoweledge' must have been back in the 60's and early 70's. Nichols can still bring the heat.