Closer (2004)

what did we really know about you?

Closer tells the story of self-centered characters and their selfish motivations (and this is why it is interesting). Some reviews and viewers insist that this kind of story produces no sympathetic or likeable characters. I disagree.

The selfish, flawed nature of each character makes each one more believable and human (which the slightly stilted dialogue-adapted from an original stage play-could easily have masked had less skillful actors played in these roles) and ultimately moves the story along. Perhaps the lack of sympathy viewers and reviewers profess is because some of the more hypocritical and brutal aspects of the characters hit too close to home. As the poet Gavin Ewart wrote in "Short Time": "when two illusions meet, let there not be a third/of the gentle hypocrite reader prone to think/that he is wiser than these self-deceivers. / Such dreams are common. Readers have them too."

Indeed at the core of this film a divide exists between who the individuals really are and the perception of who they should be (ideally). After seeing the film, which didn't immediately overwhelm me, I found myself thinking about the motivations driving each character. (This is part of the strength of the film: it is thought-provoking and leaves one wondering after the fact.) Without spoiling any endings, one must wonder why Julia Roberts' character Anna makes the choice she does. One must also wonder, especially by the end, if any of these characters knew one another at all or if they were so self-involved that they used the others in their lives to fill voids absentmindedly, disregarding all the consequences. Did anyone in this story truly know the individuals s/he chose to have in her/his life?

The timeline in the film jumps around, as the film's four characters jump into and out of each other's lives. The film begins with Damien Rice's song "The Blower's Daughter" (auspicious beginnings, if I may say so) and almost immediately two of the four characters (Jude Law's "Dan" and Natalie Portman's "Alice") meet. As the story skips ahead, Dan and Alice live together, and Dan meets and ardently pursues Julia Roberts's "Anna". (He is, at least initially, rebuffed.) Enter (through rather comedic circumstances) "Larry" (the most human and real character of the film played effectively by Clive Owen). Anna and Larry get married, and at this point, relationships start to unravel, revealing both the selfishness and the deep vulnerabilities in each character. Trust, if indeed there ever was trust between any of these characters, breaks down. It is never clear, though, that the people involved have any real clue what they want. Mostly it is the same old story: they want what they can't have but don't want it when they have it.

Not being a fan of Julia Roberts or Jude Law, I was prepared to dislike their roles. However, Law was perfect as wishy-washy, hypocritical Dan, and Roberts was razor sharp in both her sarcasm and in her more emotional scenes (particularly with the talented Clive Owen, who is always eminently watchable). Natalie Portman's performance, if not her character, is probably the most arresting here because her Alice is at once strong and self-sufficient but at the same time has the appearance of someone needy and vulnerable. She announces to Dan at the beginning of the film that her relationships end because she falls out of love, and she is always the one to leave. In the end, when Dan treats Alice as a kind of consolation prize and comes back to her more out of desperation than real respect or feeling, the viewer wonders not only what Dan really knew about Alice (he perceived and assumed rather than really knowing/finding out) but also what lies below the surface with anyone in life. Just as in real life, individuals often seek out others to stroke their egos and to feel "needed", and this story weaves multiple variations of this kind of emotional manipulation into one story.

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