In The Name Of Truth

Rating: 8/10 (1 October 2017)

"Closer" is a film that inescapably feels like a work by David Mamet. It is very wordy. The characters speak their feelings and their words feel important, rife with both surface and underground content. As such, the film is not for everyone. Its stylized conversations can feel artificial, though they are revealing and they honor truth above all else. Patrick Marber crafted the play and this adaptation.
As the film follows its characters in and out of relationships, it puts truth on a pedestal, sacrifices its participants on the altar of truth, extracts from them glimpses into the true nature of man and woman.
The cast features Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen. Who could ask for more? They play four people of principle, who can change course on an emotional dime. Still, games are played between them, trying to save themselves or others from cruel truths. And the truths are always there to be seen if one is watching closely. Director Mike Nichols gives us an unvarnished look into the eyes of his cast.
All four protagonists are sadists and masochists, punishing themselves for their perceived sins, punishing each other as well, perhaps as another means of punishing themselves. Natalie Portman's Alice is a real heartbreaker, calling on the slave (to beauty) and the savior in all of us.
I am rating this film a "8", but I know I will eventually see it multiple times and I expect that grade to increase as its meanings reveal themselves to me. In the service of honesty, I must declare it.