A masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2006)

I saw Closer for the first time about 7 or 8 months ago. I was in a relationship at the time, and I admired the film for it's accuracy in depicting the lies we tell ourselves, and the ones we are closest to. That relationship ended a week before Christmas - I was dumped. I bought the DVD a few weeks later, and my view of this film was changed entirely.
I'm only 16, but every thought and feeling that transpired throughout my relationship (and it's end) was expressed in Closer. I had only been able to relate to certain scenes before, but after the breakup, the film gained new meaning as I individually connected with each character's thought's, feelings, emotions, and even their dirty schemes. However, the film's most important point is never stated, and I understood it the first time I watched it - it's not about love, but what we settle for when love has nothing to do with it.
The characters are shockingly deceptive and manipulative. Every relationship is self-effacing, in the respect that they only want the person they're with as long as they're satisfied with them. If true love had any place in this story, then the characters would have never had the desire to leave the person they're with for somebody else. Therefore, the illusion of love has to be kept, which leads to shameless deception and a painful outcome. The only character who might have actually been in love would be Alice, but her needy personality could easily project that illusion, even for me.
To call Closer a love story is a misjudgement, and I suspect Patrick Marber knew that when he was writing it. True love has no place in this film, as it doesn't with most relationships we're in, even when we say it does. We find emotional support and personal gratification when we're with somebody, but how often do we find ourselves with people we truly love? Don't we always say we do, even if we don't? The illusion of love will do for most of us, and that's what Closer is all about.
P.S. I am personally offended that Patrick Marber didn't receive a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for this. Who did they nominate that year, anyway?