Closer (2004)0

Closer, a film adapted from a Tony award and Olivier award-winning play by Patrick Marber, is a con­tem­po­rary story of betrayal, con­se­quence and let­ting go. Two cou­ples find them­selves inter­linked by coin­ci­dence, and even­tu­ally entan­gle their roman­tic and sex­ual rela­tion­ships, blur­ring the lines between the right and wrong of human con­di­tions. Complications occur when the two cou­ples cheat on each other. Each indi­vid­ual found a rea­son to betray on their lover, but later realise that they are will for­ever be depen­dent on love that is sta­ble and long-lasting. A star-studded cast has given this film famil­iar­ity and the expec­ta­tions of a typ­i­cal Hollywood feel. However, unlike many com­mer­cial films which hang on des­per­ately to con­sis­tency and tra­di­tional sto­ry­lines, Closer is much more uncon­ven­tional in its por­trayal of human behav­iour, in the face of temp­ta­tions, coin­ci­dences and the after­math of our choices when it comes to roman­tic rela­tion­ships. It is not merely a story of adul­tery and how cou­ples can cheat on each other, but a bru­tally hon­est view of the down­ward spi­ral that so many of us expe­ri­ence when we develop unrec­i­p­ro­cated affec­tion for another per­son. Often, films are afraid to talk about it for fear of being anti-climax or too real­is­tic, but per­haps this forces peo­ple to relate bet­ter to Closer. The film begins with a strong estab­lish­ment of what the char­ac­ters are, and this has to be cred­ited to the first-class per­for­mance of the actors and actresses; Alice (Natalie Portman) is an indi­vid­u­al­is­tic, strong-minded young woman who is clear of what she wants, while Dan (Jude Law) is sim­ply an obit­u­ary jour­nal­ist and a com­mon London man. Anna (Julia Roberts) is a renowned pho­tog­ra­pher who seeks sta­bil­ity, and Larry (Clive Owen) is a plas­tic sur­geon who is mas­cu­line and sex­u­ally dom­i­nat­ing. A notable qual­ity about this film is its dia­logue. One strik­ing line was what Alice said to Dan upon learn­ing of his betrayal: “Oh, as if you had no choice? There’s a moment, there’s always a moment, “I can do this, I can give into this, or I can resist it”, and I don’t know when your moment was, but I bet there was one.” Closer was a huge suc­cess, both in America and all over the devel­oped world. It drew a lot of flake for its harsh dia­logue and the overt por­trayal of Dan and Larry’s online sex chat room con­ver­sa­tion when Dan pre­tended to be Anna in the film, but the per­for­mance of the stars won them many nom­i­na­tions for pres­ti­gious awards such as the Oscars. Clive Owen, who played Larry, and Natalie Portman, who played Alice, both won a Golden Globe each for their sup­port­ing roles in Closer. This film is truly some­thing spe­cial. Its explo­ration in the causes and effects of adul­tery has stuck close to real­ity, which is some­thing often miss­ing in many American block­buster films. It pro­vokes you to ask your­self what you could have done in the face of your own life story, in the chap­ters of love and mis­trust. Closer share sim­i­lar­i­ties with Oscar-winning pic­tures such as American Beauty and Crash, in that the issues and tri­als of our behav­iour are explored with such hon­esty that it does not seem to fall under the stereo­type of a major American film. One of the rea­sons why the typ­i­cal Hollywood film can pen­e­trate almost every devel­oped coun­try is that they give com­mon peo­ple a chance to escape from the real­ity of life. Closer, how­ever, was almost bru­tal in depict­ing the con­se­quences of falling for temp­ta­tion, and gave no lee­way for its audi­ence to dream that things might be bet­ter except to face up to the music. After watch­ing this film, one might think, “yes, the per­fect peo­ple do make mis­takes, just like every­body else. So what kind of wrong will I do?” The point of this film is not to show­case cou­ples cheat­ing on each other, but that at the end of the day, the only solu­tion out of an entan­gled rela­tion­ship is to find the courage to move on. Alice was the only one who knew how to face her emo­tions, and curtly called off her rela­tion­ship with Dan, sim­ply say­ing “I don’t love you any­more.” In real­ity, there is so much dif­fi­culty in just pack­ing up and start­ing anew, espe­cially when an impor­tant rela­tion­ship has fal­tered. A film like Closer, while dan­ger­ously mind-polluting with bad lan­guage, is worth watch­ing for its frank yet cruel truth­ful­ness, which every­body will need some time in our lives. This review was writ­ten by Jasmine Goh. We can’t find her details right now. So if you want to con­tact her, go build a fire.