The scene at Larry and Anna's is not so sweet; both older and wiser than our young lovers, Larry and Anna hash it out like two hardened sailors, soiling the air with contempt and jealousy, sexual language that made me blush and details of trysts that were beyond good taste - all for the sick wanking fodder of Larry. Julia playing Anna was embarassing to watch: forced to say words and display emotions that were not natural for her, she almost visibly recoiled at saying them and seemed to portray this character to spite herself.
Word of advice to Julia: stay away from bad whore parts, stick with good whore parts, "Pretty Woman" good, "Closer" eh, not so good.
Clive Owen is perfect as Larry, which coincidentally enough is a departure from his role as Daniel in the London stage production. Owen's working-class Brit tone fits well. He rattles off every nasty utterance as though he is an editor for Hustler. I genuinely felt his sliminess ooze from his every pore, and Eric, who it's noteworthy to mention, hated the film and kept wishing Jason Bourne would show up and shoot him.
Let's wind up a bit: Alice disappears, Larry finds her, Anna and Daniel shack up for a while, Larry cons Anna into sleeping with him one more time out of guilt and to get him to sign the divorce papers, and Anna is just skanky enough to do it despite her "vast" love for Daniel, who quickly figures out she is a slag and is appropriately disgusted by her now and their "love" takes a turn for the worst (all part of Larry's plan), and the rest is the whole crux of the story and I don't want to spoil it for you.
The ending is sad, but what I liked about the story (and I did actually like it) was the moral: a bird in the hand who loves you is better than the bird in the bush who will fuck anything.
This is a lesson to not be underestimated. The movie has some very credible merits, Portman is amazing as both seductress and fragile girl, Owen is convincing and disturbing as the complicated, sexually deviant, flawed cretin.
I hope to never see Julia and Jude as lovers again.
Article comments
1 - Barry
I totally agree with your commendation of Natalie Portman in this movie: she turned out to be the only worthwhile aspect of it for me, with the ability to convincingly portray a number of characters and moods. She does fragile wonderfully, but in a way, was even better when she was in the strip joint, where Larry was trying to get something "real" from her. She gave him something real, but dead-panned it the whole way so that he never believed her. Great!
Apart from that, however, I didn't enjoy enough in the movie to write a proper review of it - your account of Jude and Julia is spot on, so that I could never feel any kind of engagement with their stories.
2 - Quack Corleone
I liked Larry. He was honest. Hated Alice, though. And I agree with your points about the acting on the part of Law and Roberts. But I think it's criminal to review 'Closer' and not mention the dialogue! Some of the exchanges were so venomous, acidic, funny, and spot on that I must have overlooked most of the film's bad points, because I thoroughly enjoyed it.
3 - Eric Olsen
good job Dawn, I didn't find anything funny about the movie, which seemed a dispiriting mess, with Law and Roberts barely there, Portman fine in an enigmatic role, and Owen convincing in a really loathsome character.
If I had found it funny, black humor to be sure, that would have made a huge difference. I just don't get the point of the whole excruciating thing and can't imagine it was any better in play form because the only thing that kept me involved at all was some of the imagery and overall look, which would have been impossible to convey on stage.
4 - Dawn
I was actually going to put in a couple of lines from each character, but the review was so difficult to write that by the end I had lost steam and just wanted it finished.
The dialogue and the story were compelling, I just think that Law and Roberts fucked it up so bad that it really ruined the potential. And I like both as actors, just not in this film.
Thanks for both of your comments.