A nearly flawless film that holds your attention

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 2005)

Closer is one of the best films of the year and was defiantly snubbed from the Oscars. Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen play four strangers in London who fall in love, and then betray their partners with each other in Patrick Marber's adaptation of his own award-winning 1997 play. I had heard of the play before and it sounded really good so I saw this film. In one word this film is amazing, The acting, writing everything is top-notch and this is a must see for any movie fan. Its a thoughtful look on adult relationships and the result it pretty good. I thought the best actor in the cast was Natalie Portman, her performance is so good and its probably better then you would expect it to be since she's so young. Julia Roberts is the worst out of the four but that doesn't mean her performance was bad. I usually don't like her that much but she certainly surprised me. Jude Law is a good actor and gives a great performance as well. Last but not least is Clive Owen, I haven't really heard much about him but after this film I will defiantly be checking out his other work. Mike Nichols does a great job of directing and he was certainly snubbed from the Oscars. The dialog is great with a lot of sharp lines that may have turned some people off. The film is somewhat depressing and its hard to feel sorry for the characters but the film doesn't expect you to. The movie is only 104 minutes long and its not hard to follow the story either. The film is not completely realistic though, like I had some trouble believing some stuff but I wouldn't look too much into them. Rating 9/10 a very fine film and one that's worth checking out.