Standard soapbox shennnigans enlivened by sharp dialogue and strong acting

Rating: 6/10 (13 June 2020)

When journalist Dan (Jude Law) meets Alice (Natalie Portman) after she has been knocked down by a taxi the 2 begin a relationship. Complications arise when Dan falls for photographer Anna (Julia Roberts) after the 2 meet when she takes his picture in order for Dan to promote his new book. Dan decides to pursue Anna and confesses his love to her; however further complications arise when Dan's involvement inadvertently brings Anna and dermatologist Larry (Clive Owen) together whom go on to become a married couple...
Despite not being particularly drawn by the initial premise of this film I decided to give it a try based on its fairly high IMDB rating and its strong cast of reliable actors. Whilst Closer is certainly not a bad film, for me, it isn't as good as it could have been either...
One thing you have to know going in to watching this film is that it is not a fun ride; all 4 characters at some point or another are deceitful and are all fairly unlikeable - although naturally how unlikeable they all are is variable from person to person. This very facet may prove to be a little off-putting to some, but I think what is worse than this is that you're in the company of several unlikeable people whom we don't really learn a great deal about.
The relationships all feel a bit shallow and seem to be built upon very little; to be perfectly honest I could see no real reason why anyone is drawn to anyone whether the couples are together or effectively 'swinging.' To me this is not a particularly insightful character piece as it only ever feels like the writers are scratching the surface with each of the relative personas. There are also quite a number of time-jumps (sometimes months or years at a time) which are a bit jarring considering nothing is really reflected on or explained through the various passages of time; it seems that the marriages and relationships fail as flimsily as they were set-up and despite my best efforts I just couldn't see this as being the brilliant 4 piece character study that others may have seen.
Still I have to admit that despite the characters feeling a bit thin and underwritten, director Mike Nichols punctuates the film with sharp dialogue and some really punchy scenes (the scene with Anna and Larry in the strip club is one such notable scene). Nichols also gets very good performances out of his talented cast; the 4 main players are all excellent and do their best to bring their characters to life as much as they can (despite none of them having as much depth as they perhaps should have had).
Closer is a decent enough film and is worth seeing, but I feel if the characters had a little more depth and if I was able to gain more of an understanding of them as people I may have found it a little more involving. Despite the obvious moral lesson, the film doesn't offer much that you wouldn't see in your everyday daytime 'soap opera' and I couldn't shake this notion that Closer wasn't much more than a bog-standard soapbox drama with a few bells and whistles thrown in.