Closer (4/5 stars)

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2005)

Synopsis: This is the story of four individual who cross paths, cross lovers, and ultimately screw themselves (and let me tell you: that is totally Nichol's element). It begins with Dan (Law) and Alice's (Portman) chance meeting, and soon enough they fall in love. Of course this does not last long because a photographer, Anna (Roberts), catches the eye of Dan and thus they have an affair. Shortly after this Daniel decides to tell Alice of the affair and he does it with such dry emotion that one cannot help but think he is the scum of the earth. However, he is not alone, Anna decides to tell her husband, Larry (Owen), that she has been having the affair as well. This scene is even more gut-wrenching. The betrayal and deception that occurs between these people is so incredible hurtful that it even grazes the viewer. Anyway, Alice decides to revert back to her old ways and join a strip club again. As fate would have it the distraught Larry shows up at this very strip club. Alice and Larry decide that perhaps it would be beneficial if they had a "go" at it, and not too mention it would definitely hurt their ex-lovers. And that is what this whole film is about: lovers turning into haters (I know that sounds ghetto but it's true). Almost everyone knows what it is like to be betrayed by a close loved one and the feelings of revenge that go with it. The only difference between us and the people in this film is that that these people decide to actually extract this vengeance. Well, oddly enough Anna leaves Dan and goes back to Larry, but Alice remains at the strip club. As one can imagine, Daniel is completely broken by this and so he confronts Larry about Anna: he wants her back. It is here that Larry tells him to go back to Alice, and so he tells Daniel where he can find her. Dan is overjoyed by Larry's display of compassion and thanks him for disclosing Alice's location. It is here where I found to be one of the cruelest things throughout the whole movie. Just before Dan leaves, Larry stops him and tells him with pride that he slept with Alice; Dan is devastated. The viewer suddenly feels the deception that Dan felt: Larry appeared to be so forgiving and so nice, and like Dan we forgive him, but when he utters this, we want to cry with Dan. Why on earth would Larry tell Dan this?! Simple: he wants revenge, and it is this revenge that shows us how cruel humans can be. At any rate Dan and Alice never really do get back together (although they do try), and Anna and Larry remain married. And that is the end of the movie. So what do we have to take away from it? Well, many things but what I took away was that love hurts and if we are not careful we can ruin the blessings that are bestowed upon us. These characters will never be the same again (even though Anna and Larry salvaged their marriage one can tell that the love they used to have is gone), and yet at one time they had everything they could have wanted. So why did these people do these things to each other? Well, it was a combination of: lust, jealousy, and rage. Those three little words ruined the lives of four people, and we as the viewer should always remember this. Because if there is anything a great movie like "Closer" can do, it is to have us take a second look at what we have and either try to change it or be thankful for it. In my opinion this film does the latter, and I couldn't be happier for the reminder. I really enjoyed this cathartic experience and therefore I will give "Closer": 4 out of 5 stars.
NOTE: 1/5 stars = bad 2/5 stars = OK 3/5 stars = good 4/5 stars = great 5/5 stars = classic