Omission and flashback structure a stark drama

Rating: 7/10 (22 June 2014)

Closer is an intense drama, focusing on a menage a quatre, starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. It is interesting to note that the film is based on Patrick Marber's stage work, with the playwright as screenwriter. Often great writers play with time in a narrative, and this definitely informs the structure of Closer. Marber uses omission and flashback with abrupt emotional power in telling the story of betrayed trust, emotional and sexual infidelity. Each sequence is of another timeframe of the story - sometimes a day before, sometimes a year forward – without using title cards to cue the audience. What he leaves out comes out with breathtaking emotional reverberation is scenes of raw confrontation.
The dialogue is superb: cutting, cruel, insidiously real – often uncomfortably honest. The problem, however, of stripping characters down to only their emotional selfishness and sexual secrets is four unlikeable protagonists. We don't particularly like any of these characters – Law's character seems weak and needy, Owen's is a bully, Roberts's character seems indifferent. Only Portman creates some teasing mystery and deeper vulnerability in her portrayal.
I think the production compensates for this by casting highly attractive actors, but it doesn't always work in making the characters seem sympathetic