Closer to....?

Rating: 4/10 (24 April 2005)

In Mike Nichols' dreary film adapted from Patrick Marber's play, we start far away from the four main characters and never move any closer toward understanding them.
The boy-meets-girl (and screws her over) plot is simple, but missing details and lack of character development complicate the film. We know it isn't a feel-good tale right off the bat: Daniel (Jude Law) and Alice (Natalie Portman) are engaged in a casual game of "you're-hot-wow-I-must-look-again" coquettishness on a busy London sidewalk when she is hit by a taxi. "Meeting cute" this isn't. Thus begins a torturous relationship that takes place largely off-screen; we only witness a few minutes of pleasant calm, and maybe only seconds of what would appear to be happiness. What we do witness is hostility, turmoil and betrayal channeled through stilted, stage-crafted dialogue.
The same applies for the other half of the film's cast. Julia Roberts is Anna, an accomplished photographer who fraternizes with her subjects  with Daniel, anyway; their random lip-locking is the catalyst of the plot. It throws his relationship with Alice to the sex-club dogs (her previous line of work), and messes with Anna's head. She will soon meet hard-edged Larry (Clive Owen), and must decide which one she loves after sleeping with them both.
The couples split and reform in different iterations, and split and reform again in their original states near the end of the film. Much rough sex is had (all off-screen), and many tears are shed, but the four souls remain wrapped in mystery. The final scene punctuates this distance.
Portman and Owen's performances are commendable. Law and Roberts, however, deliver distant and (intentionally?) detached portrayals of their characters. If eye-candy is your interest, you may be surprised  Portman glows intermittently, but there's nothing very beautiful in this film.