Extreme Characterizations

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2006)

"Closer" is a film about four people and the role that truth (or different kinds of truth) plays in their relationships as they try to get closer to themselves and to each other. The mixed reaction from viewers is because while "Closer" is a nicely packaged film and a fast-paced intelligent screenplay; the four main characters are "extremes" or at least extreme examples of the behaviors at the allegorical core of the film. These "expressionistically" drawn characters offend and disappoint the viewer segment expecting realistic and sympathetic portrayals (insert "characters with whom they can identify" here).
But they are extreme because they are intended to illustrate (in obvious ways) certain subtle elements of our romantic relationships. The two male characters, Dan (Jude Law) and Larry (Clive Owen), are products of and participants in the most fundamental Darwinian courtship process. Despite making a pretense of having evolved from the competitive courtship of male primates, they are still driven more by the need to win and secure a trophy than by a quest to love. Likewise Anna, the older female (Julia Roberts), is attracted by the male demonstrations of dominance, both the physical bluster of strength and the mental head games intended to manipulate her emotions. Accordingly her behavior encourages these demonstrations by the males.
Contrasted with these three is the younger female (Natalie Portman) who seeks a man who can transcend primitive drives, loving her and allowing her to love him.
Into this mix writer Patrick Marber inserts the truth factor in an ironic way. Portman's character places little value on words, adopting a false name at the beginning of the film. That she is superficially living a lie is ironic because she is the only one of the four who does not lie about their true feelings or engage in self-deception. Her transparency and detached self-awareness is symbolized by her job as a stripper.
The other three torture themselves and each other with superficial truths while engaging in compulsive deception about their actions and actual feelings, to each other and to themselves. Their duplicity is symbolized by their occupations. Dan is an obit writer, skilled in the use of euphemisms to disguise the unflattering characteristics of the deceased. Anna is a photographer, skilled in freezing a single moment in time uncharacteristic of the actual subject she is representing. Larry is a dermatologist focused on the superficial surface that one publicly presents.
The key exchange occurs early in the film as Alice and Dan discuss how essential euphemisms are in his job: Alice: What would my euphemism be? Dan: She was... disarming. Alice: That's not a euphemism. Dan: Yes, it is.
Alice's up-front and open behavior causes him to let down his guard and feel a higher level of emotion, but his need to make new conquests and to test his attractiveness soon reasserts itself. She is willing to forgive this until finally convinced that he cannot transcend something so much a part of his basic nature. With that realization she falls out of love.
"Closer" is much like "XX/XY" in its exploration of the mysteries of male discontent although it is philosophically deeper and much better written. Coles (Mark Ruffalo) plays the Dan character in that film, but Law's portrayal is more convincing because he does not have to alternate between rebel and wimp, something that Ruffalo could not quite pull off.
All four performances are solid although Roberts is given very little with which to work. Portman is especially good. The problem with "Closer" is that its symbolic message is not getting through to most viewers (at least it would appear so from the many clueless reviews and comments) who try to relate to it on a literal level. But if you like abstract tales deceptively showcased in a realistic package you should really enjoy this fine film.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.