Did I miss something?

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2005)

And then, perhaps not. First, great cinematography, great locations. Nice to see London as London even if it was always grey.
The story-line? It had possibilities - ones I don't believe were fully explored or, rather, could have been explored more fully - as in the games people play.
The actors? A serious mismatch. Each on their own may or may not have been good. As a mix - the whole just seemed too two dimensional. The mix lacked critical depth.
Might be difficult transforming a successful stage play into a good film. Stage plays essentially depend on dialogue and this, in usual absence of any visual cues or props. Here one listens to the dialogue and becomes involved in all its nuances. This is where the theatre of good theatre lies, in good dialogue and its delivery.
In a film, one has dimension. One needs dimension and somehow, for me, Closer lacked that.
To appreciate the point I'm trying to make, perhaps some readers here may have seen Alan Rudolph's "The Moderns". Now there's a film with dimension. The Moderns is a film not too dissimilar to Closer in many ways. This film is also about relationships. But there was something there that I have rarely ever found in any other film - the subtlety of dialogue - not only of the spoken word but also in its visual delivery. I think this is what I mean by "dimension". Closer somehow didn't have that.
May be its a generational thing - The Moderns was made nearly 20 years ago. Must have made some impact if it still comes to mind now.
That aside, is not that I'm seeking fault with the film. Natalie Portman's performance was sterling. Julia Roberts was Julia Roberts as was Jude Law. Clive Owen was effective.
Oh - where this film did lose some credibility for me was where Anna used a Leica (35 mm camera) to take the crying picture of Alice and, in the exhibition, the picture was printed up in a square format with its ragged neg holder borders and all. Wouldn't say this was typical for a "real photography" if the intention was to print full neg - what more can I say?