Compulsive but cynical and cold

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2005)

Two utterly beautiful American women (Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman), two good-looking British guys (Clive Owen and Jude Law), a sharp script from the writer of the original play Patrick Marber, the London where I live, and music by Mozart - there is lots to like about this movie. It begins romantically as each of four inter-related liaisons takes off in charged circumstances, most notably an electrifying kiss between the Roberts and Jude characters. But this is a milieu created by director Mike Nichols in which words are weapons, loving is lacerating, and infidelity is inevitable. As one character puts it: "What's so great about the truth? Try lying for a change - it's the currency of the world".
For once, at a little over one and a half hours, we have a film that doesn't over-run its course. Over four years, relationships start and finish and we are left to imagine what went in between. The language is as sexually explicit as any mainstream movie that you'll see, but there is virtually no flesh and certainly no sexual activity on display. For all practical purposes, there are only four speaking roles in this work and each of the actors gives a powerful and persuasive performance. This is a work which is as compelling as it is cynical and cold.