Truth, love, and art in the 21st century

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2005)

My rating: 7/10.
Closer, which portrays a love quadrangle between four London urban sophisticates (actually three, plus Natalie Portman's stripper character), explores a variety of challenging questions. What is it that separates humans from animals  is it our capacity for forgiveness, or for adhering to the truth? To what extent should a person lie to protect the happiness of others? What is the nature of love in modern-day urban society? What is happiness, and can we even recognize a happy person? When is one being taken advantage of, and when is one properly protecting one's self? It is quite obvious that Closer was originally a play. There is little action, only a few sets, and a huge amount of dialogue. Fortunately, the four lead actors are all up to the challenge. Julia Robert's thoughtful and engaging performance will surprise some people, but I felt that Clive Owen turned in the most outstanding performance, in the complex role of the manipulative Larry. The scene in which Larry reveals to Dan the results of his scheming, reducing Dan to a whimpering shred of a human being, is a masterpiece of power and control, and Clive Owen carries it off brilliantly, with perfect timing, delivery and body language.
My primary complaint about Closer is that the storyline is overly complex. By the time the final breakup scene rolls around, after so many other breakups and reconciliations, it seems a bit too much. The very end of the film, when Dan visits the park, does provide an answer for the final breakup, but still, I had tired of the back-and-forth by the end of the film. Closer also does a better job at raising questions that answering them. Viewers looking for principles or even for consistency of behavior among the main characters will be sorely disappointed, as hypocrisy and contradictions abound, but this apparent fact of modern-day life may indeed be one of the messages the film is communicating. If so, it's more than a bit depressing.