Love and Lust Among the Beautiful People

Rating: 5/10 (15 December 2005)

Mike Nichols' "Closer" is a stage play that never looses the feeling of short stories strung together and edited in a somewhat displaced chronology of bits between stripper Alice (Natalie Portman), writer Dan (Jude Law), photographer Anna (Julia Roberts), and dermatologist, Larry (Clive Owen). That no one is less that stunning and beautiful in this film is a credit to the casting of four actors who have chops behind their chiseled jaws and perfect profiles.
Natalie Portman gives an eyeful of her adult regions for the screen in the easily most watchable section of the film. She has long outgrown the little girl of The Professional and her maturity as an actor is exceptional for those expecting a Star Wars ingenue. Equally outstanding is Clive Owen who played both the roles of Dan on stage and Larry for the film. His dark handsomeness and intensity over the disintegrating relationship with his wife (Julia Roberts) is both territorial and frantic. One can easily relate to his anguish and anger at his wife's straying.
Although given top billing, Julia Roberts plays the least likable character as a passive- aggressive photographer whose brief fling with Jude Law reflects the press attention to the actor's recent notorious behaviour. Law seem totally comfortable with the portrayal of cad, a role that has all too many associations with his real life drama that eeks its way into the performance.
Dialogues on fidelity, infidelity, love, and sex are the majority of conversations between characters that begins to sound preachy. Often cruel in its harshness, the relationships of these "adults" is vicious sparing between men too crude for Sex In The City, and too harsh for reality TV. As a slow moving storyline jumps between temporal frames, it barely moves the action forward in uneven pacing. Although the majority testosterone waving happens between revengeful Larry and Dan, a callous pretty boy who writes obituaries, the only scene between the two women early in the film is easily the choice confrontation of a wronged woman meeting the guilt- ridden slut.
Sometimes the truth is too much information in relationships and neither Larry or Dan have learned that fact to the detriment of their women swapping relationships. Dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and inability to trust seems to unravel these shallow relationships as well as bore the audience to tears. While some may label this film art, it is not exactly "art" as "mature," and its adult storyline falls short of interest as none of the characters are worthy of audience attention for the entire duration of the film. If long and boring but attractive is substance, Nichols' "Closer" fills the bill.