A sad waste...

Rating: 1/10 (4 December 2004)

When I first saw the trailers, I thought I would be in for a gripping, heart-touching, mysterious romance. And now I'm wondering how many other people may have been under the same impression just to be disappointed, as the theater was full, but some of the comments heard as we were leaving included:
"Well, Oprah liked it..." "Julia Roberts looked pretty, but other than that..." "What was Mike Nichols thinking?"
One of my least-favorite plot mechanisms in books or movies is what I call the "never-ending downward spiral of misery, ending without hope". This film embodies that. All the characters start out fairly miserable, and wind up worse, without a shred of potential for a hopeful future. Neither the plot nor characters were even developed at all - it all sort of ran in a vicious circle.
On the plus side, the actors are beautiful, the film has a slick look, and the theme song is very nice. Unfortunately I'll never be able to listen to it again without the sick feeling of sliding into misery...I really wish I had chosen to see Ray again instead of Closer.