We Never Stop Looking

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2005)

Love, sex, desire, flirting, betrayal are everybody's business. It doesn't matter if you're romantic/faithful, or liberal/promiscuous: you do worry about how you're regarded.
The handsome guy (Jude Law) sees the beautiful young lady (Natalie Portman) coming closer, then a car knocks her down. Boy helps girl, boy meets girl. A couple of years pass and we get to know that they've been living together since they met. He is Daniel, an obituary-writer; she is Alice, an American ex-stripper who is working in London as a waitress. Dan is about to launch a book telling Alice's history, and thinks he'll finally succeed as a writer. Alice is happy just for being with Dan and leading her modest job/life.
Things start to get dark when Dan meets Anna (Julia Roberts, in which is probably her best performance to date), a beautiful photographer, and they flirt. Playing a prank on a lonely doctor, Larry (Clive Owen) Dan chatted online with (pretending to be a woman), he unexpectedly makes Anna and Larry meet and fall in love with each other. These four strangers will meet, cheat and argue several times, and when we think they've finally come to terms, Patrick Marber/Mike Nichols provide us with another twist.
I haven't seen Marber's play, but I can say he did an awesome job with this screenplay. Mike Nichols is great, as usual. All of the four actors are excellent, especially Clive (just forget "King Arthur") and Natalie (George Lucas doesn't know how to lead his actors, in fact – but with the right master, Portman is amazing).
"Closer" is one of the most cruel, realistic romances in recent memory. It is uneasy and difficult, just like affairs of the heart; but in the end you'll feel it was a valuable experience.
Satisfaction: 10 out of 10 (It was GOOD to me).
Hello, stranger.