"Closer" - Movie Review

Despite the impression I got from the masters of the backhanded compliment (that is, movie critics), I went to see Closer recently. The NY Times review, for example, was full of tidbits that gave the movie promise, but then it closed with the standard, "it failed to realize its ambition" sentiment. Never did A.O. Scott, the author, bother to mention whether or not the movie was worth seeing. (I suspect that paid movie reviewers have some little club where they try to out-technical and out-nuance each other from week to week - all at the expense of readers who just want to know if they should see the movie.) This, to me, is the point of a movie review.

As I've said before, movies, for many people (including myself), are an escape from the familiar areas of solution space that so constantly occupy their attention. Therefore, any useful review deals primarily with whether or not the escape was worthwhile. It, furthermore, addresses whether or not the escape has a lingering effect. After all, it is always a plus when a movie stays with you longer than the two hours it took to watch it. So, for Closer, let me get the important stuff out of the way.

It's definitely worth watching, if for nothing more than being an inventive script that is well acted by some of Hollywood's best eye-candy. That, in itself, is quite an accomplishment these days. I read several moviegoer comments that were very negative, saying the movie was awful and a downer. However, after seeing it, I think it's likely that these people were uncomfortable with the subject matter more than anything. It's about four people struggling with fidelity in a love quadrangle that spans a number of years. There's betrayal, cowardice, overt sexuality, and emotional weakness, so I can see how conservative, prudish types might be turned off. But, the movie's strength is in the insights into humanity it provides, insights that are provocative well after the last credits have rolled. It may be the warped lens through which I have been viewing the world lately, but I came away really thinking about truth and how each character's approach to it would translate into long-term happiness.

Closer is an adaptation of a well-known play by Patrick Marber, which, to me, explains the fact that the movie is just one long series of dramatic moments in the interpersonal relations of these four characters. Just as many plays leave you guessing where you are in place and time until the words of the players provide the needed information (cleverly, one hopes), so does Closer. We get to see how people meet and then we zoom forward to find them long since intimate. Though it could be argued that this leaves out some critical insights into the foundations of their relationships, I disagree. Courtships may vary in theme, but the process usually follows the same general path. So, this movie dispenses with the blurred, feel-good soundtracked montages of the couples falling in-love and gets to the good parts - where things go wrong.

Fade in with Jude Law meeting Natalie Portman on the street, in a somewhat unusual encounter - she obliviously wades out into traffic while she's gazing at Law and gets hit. Law's character, Dan, is an aspiring novelist who works as an obituary writer. Natalie Portman's character, Alice, is a bit of a vagabond who's just arrived from New York, with no bags, no home, and no work, though procuring it shouldn't be hard for a stripper. They are obviously smitten with one another, so it isn't shocking to change scenes and find them together as a couple for four years. With a feel for the pace of the movie, we settle in and find that in subsequent years, Law's character will deceive, confess, rationalize, submit, gloat, hit bottom and well...I don't want to give away the ending. Suffice it to say that once professional photographer, Anna (played by Julia Roberts), enters the scene, the cast-members with y-chromosomes are at her mercy. Interestingly, it isn't because she's her usual bubbly,charming self. She's actually more of a demure shell of a person who seems to glide through life. But Law and his perennial opponent, Larry (played by Clive Owen), cannot resist her.

With the quadrangle complete, the movie proceeds to bounce forward and backward into and out of scenes that either set up or pay off the build to emotional high drama. Dan, still with Alice, pursues Anna, who resists, but not really, and winds up with Larry. Larry and Alice confront their cheating partners. And on and on. But don't worry - it's not confusing; it's entertaining. And the plot is utterly unpredictable - I found myself wondering who would end up with whom in the end. But none of that matters without real characters in real situations. This, in my view, is where Closer really hit the mark.

I think we all know people like the character, Anna, who seem to have their act together but are fascinatingly passive, letting life drag them out and push them back in, like the tides. They make curiously short-sighted decisions (when they make decisions at all), often about the most important aspects of life, but they somehow never have the consequences fully befall them. Roberts has Law and Owen pursuing her relentlessly throughout the movie, though, other than her looks, you're hard pressed to know why. Even after she's on record being unfaithful, she is still chased by both suitors. That's not even remotely inconceivable in real life, is it? And Jude Law's character, Dan? We've met him, too.

He's the guy who was born on the fence between socially acceptable and socially unacceptable. When he's on his game and things are going well, he's compelling and alluring. When trouble comes, he's a mush of pathetic mud, with whoa is me as his theme song. In this case, however, he is wily and quite liberal with the truth (even with himself), so he rises again, though it is often only on the promise provided by a temporary illusion. He goes through life fixated on himself and his own emotional state, and, not so ironically, he never has any idea. Sound familiar? And Dr. Larry? What about him?

He's our better man. Though it doesn't come up often, it is very clear that Clive Owen's character fancies himself better than all three other cast members. At one point, he gets the raw end of the deal with Anna and makes it explicit - "I'm the best thing that ever happened to you." You wonder if he even believes it as it leaves his lips. Sturdy or not, Larry uses his perceived status to shelter himself from the pain of being cheated upon and abandoned - had he not been playing with lesser people, he'd not have been treated so poorly. The result of this, however, is predictable because it mirrors the real world. The facade works...for a while, and then it comes down crashing with an emotional breakdown. In the end, however, Larry triumphs (if you can call it that), which vindicates his commitment to social stratification...for him and us. Is anyone surprised when the well-bred guy with money wins?

As I mentioned, I thought a lot about truth when I walked out of this movie. That's basically what it was about for me. For all but Portman's character (with one notable and surprising exception), truth was a matter of convenience. Roberts' character consistently endulged herself and kidded herself at the very same time. (It is not a coincidence to find these two phenomena side by side.) Dan's determination to be true to himself was the "get out of jail free" that, in his mind, dismissed all of his wonton behavior and character flaws. Larry's trickery with truth was perhaps the least pernicious, if only because it was installed over a long period of time that began shortly after birth. His Matrix-like illusion of the world was sufficiently strong to get him through some tough times (with only a couple of breakdowns), but it was powerless to show him that the goal he sought was not worth seeking. In the end, it was only Alice who was who she was (figuratively, if not literally), which is why my bet would be on her to come out happy.

You know a movie's good when you wonder which character will fare better in the future. Go see it and let me know what you think...