With a better script, Closer could have been compelling romantic drama; instead, it's little more than clichéd nonsense.
Closer (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:197
Fresh:136
Rotten:61
Average Rating:6.6/10
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sequences of graphic sexual dialogue, nudity/sexuality and language
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 3, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $33,987,757
Synopsis: Are humans meant to mate for life? What drives someone in a perfectly good relationship to cheat and risk losing the one that they love and that loves them? Is it possible to love more than one... Are humans meant to mate for life? What drives someone in a perfectly good relationship to cheat and risk losing the one that they love and that loves them? Is it possible to love more than one person at the same time? How well does anyone really know the one that they love? Directed by Mike Nichols (THE GRADUATE, BIRDCAGE, WORKING GIRL), CLOSER questions the nature of relationships and fidelity as it follows the tangled web created by Dan (Jude Law), Alice (Natalie Portman), Anna (Julia Roberts), and Larry (Clive Owen). Dan, a British writer of obituaries, and Alice, a young American stripper, meet in the film's opening scene when a London cab runs her down. Cut to a year later: Dan and Alice are now a couple, but he is suddenly smitten with Anna, a beautiful American photographer. In an ironic twist of fate, Anna meets Larry, a British doctor, and they are soon a couple, despite Dan's continuing obsession. But the entanglements don't end there, and ultimately, someone is sure to get hurt. The four players do justice to a script that is humorous, raw and disarmingly honest about adult relationships. [More]
Starring: Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen
Starring: Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen
Director: Mike Nichols
Director: Mike Nichols
Screenwriter: Patrick Marber
Producer: John Calley, Cary Brokaw
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Reviews for Closer
Nichols ... simply stuns with a beautiful production, excellent script, unconventional and rather hateful story, and excellent acting all around.
Mike Nichols teases up a similar level of emotional dysfunction to "Carnal Knowledge" with a filmic rendition of Patrick Marber's stage play about sexual one-ups-man-ship.
Like dramas by Pinter and others, what seems trenchant and perfectly pitched in the theater can come off as arch even when skillfully transferred to film.
Four beautiful, despicable characters find everything but love in this borderline sadistic battle of words from Mike Nichols.
Marber looks at farcical giddiness with a hard-won sobriety.... Closer is a voguish farce that, rather than making you wish you were like the characters, makes you wish that you hadn't been.
Owen and Portman give excellent, committed performances, leaving Law and Roberts in the shade.
Thanks to Marber's whiplash dialogue, the cast suffer with an eloquence that's uncommon in the movies, but that's about as far as it goes.
Fortunately for Nichols, Marber’s script is smart enough and often uncomfortably amusing, and the talent he’s arrayed all live up to their marquee status. Even Roberts.
Closer, a lacerating four-character suite on the elusiveness of love and intimacy, finds Nichols returning to his roots without having lost his sardonic edge.
...directors like Peter Greenaway and Mike Leigh have examined sexual politics and cruelty with results that are significantly more profound.
"Closer" isn't the kind of film just any audience would enjoy. The film features complex sexual and relationship themes that might leave some viewers cold.
The dialogue is often lacerating, as lovers wield words like lashes, striking out to get what they desire.
Offers a cynical and pessimistic look at the ongoing Sexual Revolution.
Since we only glimpse these personalities when they are threatened, the fun of the movie becomes trying to guess which behavior is genuine, and which is a means of defense.
Surely the most divisive film about modern relations since Eyes Wide Shut.
Latest News for Closer
July 12, 2006:
Portman Party Pooper: Natalie Won't Be Nude
After a few exhilarating days of hopeful speculation, the dreams of "Star Wars" fanboys everywhere have been crushed as Natalie Portman will not, repeat not, appear... More...
February 24, 2006:
Time to Vote for JoBlo's Golden Schmoes!
The SAGs, the BAFTAs, the Globes and the Oscars are all fine and good, but if there's one voting process I always look forward to, it's JoBlo's Golden Schmoes. It's time for the... More...
January 11, 2006:
Julia Roberts to Make Her Return in "War" Movie
Variety reports that Ms. Julia Roberts, who hasn't been in a flick since 2004's "Ocean's Twelve," is planning to co-star with Tom Hanks in Mike Nichols' and... More...
May 11, 2005:
Fox Searchlight to Do a "Scandal" with Blanchett & Dench
From the pages of Variety comes news of the timely drama "Notes From a Scandal," which is based on Zoe Heller's novel "What Was She Thinking?" Cate Blanchett... More...
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