Modernity, loves, lies and betrayals

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2005)

Absolutely top class film, sold out for the second night running when I saw it, which is remarkable for a converted stage play. A chance encounter brings failed writer Dan (Jude Law) and ex-stripper Alice (Natalie Portman) together in London. Their relationship revitalises Dan, who writes a book about her, but soon his affections are straying towards divorcée photographer Anna (Julia Roberts), soon to be involved with cynical dermatologist Larry (Clive Owen) as a result of a revenge-joke played by Dan. The film plots over 4 years of their turbulent inter-relationships, their loves, betrayals, lies, defections, break-ups and reunions.
The cast shone in their roles, the characters carefully constructed so as to attract your fleeting sympathies in one moment, only to be rudely dashed by some horrible act the next, meaning your affections can never settle on a single individual, and dismissing the capacity for moral judgement -- this is a story about real modernity and the flawed, fucked-up characters who inhabit it, the weakness, fallibility and flaws of human passions. Even Larry, played brilliantly by Clive Owen, who is probably the most repugnant of the characters simply for his calculating ability to play the game and succeed, is not without his sympathetic moments, despite his 'caveman' tendencies. Julia Roberts played a very unusual role as washed-out Anna; whilst Al thought her acting was slightly implausible, my view was that Anna's personality was intended to be 'thin', a piece of debris that floats between and is buffeted by various encounters and disasters, hardly in control of her own fate, led by impassioned men. Paul informs me that Owen and Portman have been nominated for all the awards for Closer, but the nominations could easily have been extended to Jude Law (currently the hardest-working actor in Hollywood, surely) and quite possibly to Julia Roberts as well.
Sterling stuff - not affective or life-affirming in the way of a typical Hollywood 'story of romance and passion' as the film has been billed (rather dishonestly, resulting in its surprisingly large audiences), but engrossing, moving, intriguing - a razor-sharp incision into the human condition that asks how much we really know the people we think we love.
Recommended!