Gleefully twisted and brutally honest

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2016)

Mike Nichols' Closer is the story of a jagged love square between four very different and cynical individuals. Whether its the great acting or the extremely suggestive subject matter, there is just something so satisfying and enjoyable about watching other people's relationship complications.
Closer isn't even close to being a perfect film, but it's certainly an enjoyable one. I had a hell of a time with Closer and was fully engrossed with it's purposely flawed characters and it's great balance of tense drama and questionable humor.
Closer features four very talented actors at the helm of the project. Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law and Clive Owen all share roughly the same amount of screen time, but each of their characters are developed differently, giving us four emotionally problematic characters to connect with. While the bold and sometimes shocking acts that these characters commit make it kind of hard to directly relate to them as people, the acting displayed here is so colorful and refreshingly honest that it's hard not to feel connected to them, whether it's by pity or compassion. Jude Law and Julia Roberts are certainly the two most emotionally damaged characters of the film and that shows in their performances. Jude Law acts almost childish at times, which sometimes works in his favor, but mostly just makes us feel pity for his sniveling. Julia Roberts, on the other hand, attempts to be the adult in most situations but her actions only come across as steely and ice-cold, which conveniently also describes her facial expressions.
Despite these two entertaining performances, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman are the clear powerhouses of talent in the film. Clive Owen manages to create such a sleazy and manipulating character that is so incredibly unlikable that it's honestly quite impressive. It was hard to ignore the fact that I wanted to see his character more, despite how grossly back-stabbing and ignorant he is. This brings us to Natalie Portman. Natalie Portman is easily one of my favorite actresses and I must say that she is at the top of her game here. Her character has so many layers of emotion and personality that it's hard not to commemorate her performance here as she managed to pull off every one of the many shades of emotion with such grace and honesty.
While the story is admittedly quite silly, it never gets to the point of unbearably fictional. Despite it's repetitive and unrealistic nature, the story never felt too far fetched as the dramatic performances helped quite a bit to ground the film in some solid probability. The script however threatens to uproot these dramatic performances as it is almost laughably unnatural. There were times where I questioned if the writers were ever even in real relationships before as almost everything these characters say is either ridiculously dirty or just plain stupid. Even this talented cast couldn't completely sell this strange and unnatural script. It's a shame that we couldn't get a less juvenile script, but the cast involved did the best job they could with the subject matter they were given.
Closer is a very bold and unrelenting drama. All these characters acted with such ferocity and cynicism, making the entire experience seductively compelling. I couldn't help but be intrigued by the dysfunctionality of these characters' relationships. Despite it's unnatural and juvenile script, the actions of the characters really displayed enough emotion already. Closer is a film that I had a ton of fun watching and will probably soon revisit. Not only was I satisfied by the film's ending, but I was extremely grateful that I have never met people like the film's characters or experienced problematic relationships on their scale. For this, I feel eternally grateful.