Strangers becoming lovers, lovers becoming estranged: the paradox of oh-so-modern coupling keeps the home fires burning in Patrick Marber's astringent Closer.
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12/02/04
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Closer (2004)
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Reviews Counted:197
Fresh:136
Rotten:61
Average Rating:6.6/10
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... [More]
Starring: Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen
Director: Mike Nichols
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Reviews for Closer
Sure, there's a rubber-necky attraction to watching these good-looking, half-baked creations living anguished, photogenic lifestyles. But it's unclear if we're supposed to feel engaged.
12/02/04
Top CriticEverything about Closer -- from its four wonderful performances to Nichols' stunning work -- looks and feels perfect.
12/02/04
Top CriticVery adult, and very clever.
12/02/04
Next to Closer, most on-screen relationships seem too neat and polite, with tears shed only for effect, and feelings bruised but never really damaged.
12/02/04
Top CriticA formerly startling string of episodes has become a prurient, static exercise in monochromatic tongue-lashing.
12/02/04
With crackling dialogue, Closer reaches out and grabs all but the most reluctant viewer. Some spectators will be bored, but more will be shaken and stirred.
12/02/04
Top CriticIn spite of the teasing promise of its title, Mike Nichols's deft drama does everything it can to push you away.
12/02/04
Top CriticWhile the technique significantly streamlines things, it also strips away whatever makes us sympathize with or better understand the characters, leaving love and sex as unintelligible as ever.
12/02/04
It's a movie that demands more than one viewing to absorb all its ideas and feelings.
12/02/04
Portman, well, she shines. It's a performance that really does mark her entrance into movie adulthood.
12/02/04
The dialogue rewards us for playing close attention.
12/02/04
Closer gets about as close as it gets to showing how love sometimes makes people do awful things to each other.
12/02/04
"These photographs make sadness so beautiful that it's a lie."
12/02/04
This is director Mike Nichols' best theatrical effort in years.
12/02/04
Top CriticIt's a pleasure to see material this intelligent, a cast this inspired -- and Nichols in his Carnal Knowledge prime, operating with cold, silky expertise.
12/02/04
Top CriticSmugly offensive.
12/02/04
[The characters'] allegiances shift so relentlessly and drastically that we are unable to tune into who they are.
12/02/04
The kind of drama that some will find provocative and groundbreaking; I just find it mean spirited.
12/02/04
Closer, way too stagy to be a movie, makes minutes feel like hours -- think Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Valium.
12/02/04
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January 11, 2006:
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