Closer By
Bryan Enk
Cast: Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive
Owen.
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Let me begin by saying that I am not a fan of director Mike
Nichols. Throughout his long career, Nichols has (for some
reason) often been charged with dark, subversive material.
He gets great stories, great scripts that should hit you right
in the gut. However, Nichols is such a vanilla director -
and seems so bound and determined to be remembered as the
man who brought us The Graduate, the one film where he at
least sort of hit the mark - that he never really takes any
risks. He takes great scripts and doesn't know how to really
bring out their brutal, emotional weight. Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? Was an OK movie, but it should've been a great
movie. Ditto Carnal Knowledge. Hell, Wolf could've been a
minor classic. Angels in America is a pretty damn good play
- Nichols' film version with Al Pacino and Emma Thompson was
all superficial bombast.
Which brings us to Closer, based on Patrick Marber's 1997
play. Closer is definitely a product of the '90s, when it
suddenly become cool and chic to tell nasty, mean-spirited
stories about nasty, mean-spirited people (see also The House
of Yes, Natural Born Killers, Pulp Fiction, the films of Neil
LaBute, etc.). Film and theatre found a new freedom under
Clinton's administration - nothing was really going on with
the rest of the world, so we brought the conflict (however
fictional) to ourselves. Closer is about four (conveniently)
attractive people - two men and two women - who lie, deceive,
cheat on each other and start and end relationships in the
blink of an eye. The language is graphic and candid, the emotions
high and the story completely pointless and the characters
completely unlikable without an extremely skilled cast and
director.
Nichols certainly has the cast. Clive Owen comes off best
as Larry, the doctor who spends time trading dirty IM's with
strangers (Owen also appeared in the stage production, in
the part played by Jude Law here). Julia Roberts nicely underplays,
for the most part, as Anna, the professional photographer
who marries Larry, carries on an affair with Dan (Jude Law),
leaves Larry, stops her affair with Dan and then goes back
to Larry. Law, as Dan, a self-described "failed novelist,"
isn't as strong, though he has brilliant moments of portraying
Dan's confusion and eventual self-loathing, coming across
as the most pathetic of the foursome. And then there's Natalie
Portman, all grown up as Alice, a free spirit who catches
Dan's fancy (and later Larry's). Alice is the most deceptive
of the bunch, though to delve further into that would bring
us into the Forbidden Land of Spoilers.
So, all of the performances are...fine. Certainly not great,
but serviceable. Nichols' direction is...not very good, but
it could've been a lot worse. So what's the problem? The problem
is this film should've been amazing, and it's not, which makes
it all the more tragic. Nichols seems - once again - intimated
by the material and refuses to actually put any subtext (or
subtlety) behind the vulgar language and screaming fits. He
hits all of the beats, and he maintains his pace, but ultimately
there's nothing underneath this shiny, good-looking, hollow
vanity project. It's one of those movies that the Academy
latches onto at Oscar voting time because they don't know
any better. Look at Julia Roberts, trying something new. Look
at Natalie Portman, shedding her good-girl image. Don't they
see that the people involved with this project had absolutely
no idea how to handle the material and turn it into something
other than 1) a movie about horrible people doing horrible
things, and 2) an "acting showcase" that was manipulated
to be a well-timed Oscar ad?
It's frustrating. The script deserves better. Maybe Closer
could've succeeded if it had been made by a group of unknowns
with no ego and nothing to lose instead of by award-hungry
Hollywood power players who probably read the play and thought,
"Oh, this is edgy, this is for adults, let's get Julia
Roberts to be in it." Closer, under the right hands,
could provide an unflinching insight into how frail and shallow
human relationships can become once sex gets involved. It
could provide insight into human nature's tendencies to lie
and deceive, to protect one's own emotions at all costs, even
if it means destroying another person in the process. It's
not easy-going stuff, nor is it optimistic stuff, but is it
the stuff of great drama? You better believe it. Unfortunately,
this Closer doesn't come close. |
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