Love shatters the heart in drama ‘Closer’
In the biting drama “Closer,” love doesn’t just hurt. It shatters the heart like a brick going through a sheet of glass. Based on the British play by Patrick Marber and directed by Mike Nichols (“The Graduate”), the intense and downbeat relationship picture allows superstar Julia Roberts and her three talented co-stars – Clive Owen (who also appeared in the London stage version), Jude Law and Natalie Portman – to deliver emotionally charged dialogue designed to cut to the bone. Roberts seems in a bit over her head, but her co-stars easily carry most of the weight in this R-rated drama about the destructive power of deception.
“Closer” unfolds over a four-year period in England and revolves around the changing relationships between two couples. Dan (Law), a struggling author trapped writing obituaries, falls for Alice (Portman), a 24-year-old American woman who worked as a stripper in New York City before moving abroad. Anna (Roberts), a portrait photographer, is married to Larry (Owen), a successful dermatologist addicted to on-line sex/chat rooms.
That taste for erotic computer encounters involves Larry in a prank that brings the four characters together, and they eventually switch partners for various reasons, poisoning the relationships.
The material’s focus on the positive beginnings and disastrous endings of some relationships attracted Nichols to “Closer.” Clearly, the director’s film focuses much more on the love-is-a-battlefield conclusions for these two couples in which no one escapes unharmed psychologically and, in one case, physically.
The sadness that comes while watching “Closer” results from the haunting images of these damaged characters reaching out for intimacy and finding it for only brief time periods. They’re in a desperate – and misguided – search for happiness, a feeling that Roberts’ depressed character believes she doesn’t deserve.
In one chilling scene, Roberts’ Anna and Owen’s Larry verbally attack each other with such extreme rawness and vicious anger that one trembles in reaction to their hate-tinged words.
“Closer” seems designed to leave viewers shaken and disturbed, feelings that lend themselves to the holiday season as much as a Rob Zombie Christmas album, but for those willing to open their minds and safeguard their hearts, it’s a sad yet insightful ride.
FILM REVIEW
“Closer”
Grade: B
Starring: Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen; screenplay by Patrick Marber, based on his play; produced by Mike Nichols, John Calley and Cary Brokaw; directed by Mike Nichols.
Running Time: 101 minutes.
Parental Guide: R rating (strong adult dialogue, sex, nudity, harsh four-letter profanity).