all talk, no action

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2006)

Natalie Portman is the reason God created women in the first place, and she's the main reason for seeing this talky but absorbing film. Although Julia Roberts and Jude Law receive top billing, Ms. Portman and Clive Owen give the strongest performances, highlighting the difference between a mere "star" and a true actor. "Closer" is basically a photographed stage play. Fans excited by the prospect of the Israeli cutie playing a stripper will be disappointed that she's never completely naked, but she gives a complex and moving performance as a needy, clinging waif whose constant demand for love and affection drives men away. The characters talk about sex but we never actually see any of it. One part of this film I disliked, and which is annoyingly frequent in films made in Britain today (including another Julia Roberts vehicle, "Notting Hill," is the almost obligatory display of self-loathing by the main characters. Do middle-class Brits really hate themselves so much? Maybe the loss of the Empire has robbed Britain of her sense of purpose; the U.K. seems fated to become nothing more than a political and economic satellite of the U.S. (what George Orwell in "1984" called "Airstrip One.")