Closer was not close to my Heart

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2004)

As a huge fan of Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman, I was very excited to see Closer. Now I would like my money back. I'll be honest I generally prefer happy, feel good movies but I will make exceptions for movies that teach you something, or touch you enough to make you cry or think about them.
My main problem with this movie was the development of the characters and relationships. I get the whole love at first sight thing I do. But one minute Jude Law falls in love with Natalie Portman. They begin what seems to be the perfect relationship. I mean the man is so enamored with this girl that he writes an entire book about her life. But only a few minutes later (minutes for the audience, months for the character) Jude Law falls for Julia Roberts. There is no reason for this. Yes Julia Roberts is beautiful but so is Natalie Portman. And Natalie Portman's character had wit and personality from the second that we all laid eyes on her. Roberts character was just blah in my opinion. All that is really shown of this womans life and personality is that she is a photographer who has a problem with monogomy. One minute she is taking Jude Law's picture and all of a sudden is obsessed and willing to drop Portman who he supposedly loves and built a life with?
Roberts loves Law too but its also unclear when or why this happened. I mean granted most girls would fall in love at first sight with Jude Law but his character was not charming at all. I thought he was pathetic.
If you are willing to buy that Roberts and Law's characters fell in love at first picture then you might find yourself asking why then did Roberts character marry Clive Owens? I mean if she was going to destroy Law's relationship with Portman anyway was it necessary to to destroy another man's life as well?
I get it these characters are cold blah blah but aren't they still human? And Portman's character, the only character in my opinion who showed any humanity was able to revert back from being a heartbroken, vulnerable girl who needed Law, to a self sufficient stripper without a care in the world.
Having completely bashed the movie I will say that I think every actor gave a good performance. People keep saying this movie is true to real life relationships and yes in the real world people get hurt and it doesn't usually end happily ever after. But I would like to believe that people have more regard for the feelings of people that they claim to love. That Roberts would have fought harder for Law.
The movie ended with me asking what the ??? but the thing was that I didn't even really care.