Closer (Natalie Portman's new movie)

7-7-7, Jude Law is in 6 I believe. Sky Captain, Alfie, Closer, Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events, I Heart Huckabees, and one other I think...


Edit: The sixth one is The Aviator, just remembered.

 

Jude Law - Sexiest Man Alive.

 

What's so great about that bit in the video? Nat Portman -- turns around!

 

I think he means Nat in a thong.

 

It's a shame that this film has good actors like Jude Law and especially Clive Owen, and then have to go and blow it by casting Julia Roberts. Bleh

 

New York Times review:


When Talk Is Sexier Than a Clichéd Clinch
By A. O. SCOTT

ike most interesting movies about sex, "Closer," Mike Nichols's deft film adaptation of a well-known play by Patrick Marber, is mostly talk. There are still a few filmmakers - not all of them French - who are capable of infusing the bodily expressions of erotic desire with dramatic force and psychological meaning, but the vast majority are content with a few moments of sheet-twisting and peek-a-boo montage.

In the past, Mr. Nichols has usually addressed sexuality with an elegant mixture of candor and discretion, and his intention in "Closer," which brings him back to the raw, needy emotions of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Carnal Knowledge," seems to be to show very little while saying a great deal. There is some display of skin: one of the characters, after all, is a stripper (another happens to be a dermatologist) and a pivotal scene unfolds in her place of work. But even that moment is less memorable for Natalie Portman's near-nudity than for the emotional self-exposure of the fully clothed Clive Owen.

The verbal intercourse that dominates that scene and every other in the film is vigorous, compulsive, sometimes painful and occasionally funny, as well as more stimulating - for the characters, one suspects, as much as the audience - than the physical intercourse that is its frequent subject. It is also mannered, schematic and frequently improbable, defects in Mr. Marber's play that Mr. Nichols and his strenuously engaged cast labor mightily to overcome.

Although "Closer" moves gracefully through the streets and rooms of contemporary London, it never quite shakes off the stasis and claustrophobia that haunt even the best screen adaptations of self-conscious, over-reaching serious drama. At times, the smooth naturalism of Mr. Nichols's direction emphasizes the archness and artificiality of Mr. Marber's dialogue and the unreality of the people speaking it.

Nonetheless, those people, though they are increasingly difficult to like, do manage to command a degree of curious attention. There are four of them, free-floating representatives of the disconnected contemporary tribe of wandering city-dwellers, arranged by Mr. Marber (who wrote the screenplay) and Mr. Nichols into a tight, ever-shifting grid of jealousy, longing and deceit.

The opening sequence is a barbed variation on the romantic comedy cliché of "meeting cute." Ms. Portman, playing Alice, a transplanted American, ambles along a crowded sidewalk. Walking toward her is Jude Law, whose character, Dan, is a newspaper obituary writer with literary aspirations. Their eyes lock across an intersection, into which Alice steps - looking, as Americans will, in the wrong direction. The taxicab that knocks her down is a hulking metaphor for the narrative that follows, in which Alice and Dan - along with Larry (Mr. Owen) and Anna (Julia Roberts), whose own cute meeting via mistaken identity and the Internet soon follows - collide by accident, continually blindsided by one another and by their own feelings.

Mr. Nichols cleverly communicates their disequilibrium by detaching their stories from the usual chronological guideposts. Sometimes the cut from one scene to the next will leap across months or even years, and rather than signal the jump with words on the screen, the film keeps us guessing about how much time has passed until a line of dialogue supplies a clue. A great deal of significant action takes place off screen, in those temporal gaps, and what we are witnessing are premonitions and repercussions - the flirting that precedes and the fighting that follows.

One effect of this dislocation is to endow a very simple story with a feeling of complication and surprise. Unlike most movie love stories, "Closer" does have the virtue of unpredictability. The problem is that, while parts are provocative and forceful, the film as a whole collapses into a welter of misplaced intensity. Larry, Dan, Alice and Anna seem to find themselves in a constant state of emoti

 

I can't wait to see this film. Nat has so much potential as an actress. Glad someone is finally giving her the chance to really show us what she can do.

 

I probably won't see it for a while. I'm thinking of seeing the Polar Express tomorrow, or maybe the Incredibles again if that has left the theaters in my area. Then next week we have Ocean's 12.

 

I'm probably going to watch it. It doesn't seem like a Natalie Portman movie. It's weird seeing her in a way different environment. Like Hyden in Life is a House, it was weird hearing him curse and stuff.

dmt

 

It doesn't seem like a Natalie Portman movie. It's weird seeing her in a way different environment.

I kind of agree. It seemed like an off-role for her. Perhaps a bit too mature for her. But, considering how she is more or less a sex symbol now, she will be thrown into those roles. I still think she looks too young for the part she is playing, though I have not seen the movie yet.

 

Another review:

CLOSER might make an interesting double bill with KINSEY. In CLOSER, the characters are perfectly capable of asking and answering pretty much every conceivable question about sex ? they?re even perfectly comfortable performing a wide variety of acts (albeit offscreen). However, this candor and comfort doesn?t seem to have done a thing to help most of them live honestly in their own skins.


Dan (Jude Law) meets Alice (Natalie Portman) when, moments after they smile at one another as strangers on a crowded London street, she?s hit by a taxi. He gallantly takes her to the hospital, she?s well enough to go for a walk with him afterward, and next thing we and they know, they are happily living together. Then Dan has his photograph taken by Anna (Julia Roberts) and a few flirtatious words later, he?s totally obsessed. Anna doesn?t want to become involved with a man who?s living with someone else, much to Dan?s dismay. So Dan plays a practical joke (hilarious to the audience and eventually funny to the characters) that has the unintentional outcome of hooking Anna up with unattached doctor Larry (Clive Owen). So everybody should be living happily ever after, right? Not so fast. Emotional and perhaps even physical danger is at every turn ? and there are quite a few turns.


The switchbacks and permutations in Patrick Marber?s script, adapted from his stage play, are truly clever and his dialogue ? at least for Dan and Larry ? is often flat-out terrific. The writer seems a lot more at home getting into the heart of male jealousy than he is with women expressing their honest emotions, with the result that, although all four of the main actors give remarkable performances, it?s Dan and Larry we feel we know intimately. Portman is vividly vulnerable yet gives Alice an undercurrent of vindictive rage that?s fascinating, but the character is not allowed the eloquence of her anger. Roberts? Anna likewise doesn?t get to vent fully, though the actress as a wonderful moment where she conveys the character?s mingled incredulity, pain and exasperation at her mate?s insistence on knowing the minutiae of her sexual infidelity. Law is truly charming yet makes clear the depth of Dan?s inability to catch on to what?s happening in the moment, while Owen as Larry is a walking illustration of unstoppable desire and reined-in fury.


Director Mike Nichols handles everything so fluidly and handsomely that CLOSER always feels like a movie rather than an opened-up play. A sequence where Dan poses as a woman ? Anna, in fact ? in a sex chat room, with Larry cluelessly believing he?s instant-messaging back and forth with a genuine female, works so well that it?s hard to imagine it in any other form and a section in a strip club plays like a dream.


CLOSER doesn?t feel like an all-encompassing statement about jealousy and sexual desire, but it?s articulate enough and the performances are convincing enough that you want to argue with the characters afterward, a sign that it holds you as it plays out its dark dance.

 

i just saw it and it was pretty good, great acting, Portman was very good, but i thought Clive Owen was the best of the whole movie. The scene where Julia Roberts confesses to him about it, was very well done. He was so good in the movie, and he might come off as the mean guy but actually he was the only one who was not a cheating liar. The ending kind of threw me, b/c i thought it would end differetly. Not a great movie by any means, i doubt i will ever see it again, but very good acting, i know everybodys talking about Portman but i think Clive Owen should be the one nominated. Its not my type of movie, but it was not terrible, and that scene with the internet chat was very funny.

 

Just saw it. Natalie was great in the breakup scene with Jude. And the scene with Clive in the stripclub was both extremely hot and bitterly cold at the same time. And yes, I was extremely disappointed that they don't show her topless but her in a g-string and doing the splits makes up for it!

 

Seen it twice now within 12 hours. A fantastic, fascinating brutal look at relationships in the 21st Century and what it means to love.

If the Academy was really about the best films of the year, this film would no doubt be nominated for Best Picture.

Performance's are top notch but the scene stealers are Owen and Portman no doubt with a special honorable mention to Julia Roberts.

This is a Natalie Portman that nobody has ever seen...period. A Best Supporting Actress nomination had better be in the cards...no matter if it's for her adorable character in Garden State or her damaged character in Closer. Either way, she's got to get something for the year she's had. Portman is no longer Amidala once you see Closer. She's a new animal.

Anyone interested in the nature of relationships and love should see this stunner. I want to call it a masterpiece but I might need to see it one more time to see.

 

What I can hardly believe is that a major Hollywood film with this many stars in it was written by Patrick Marber, of all people - he had to be one of the least obviously talented members of that whole Armando Iannucci/Day Today comedy group.

I'm not sure how I feel about the fact he's suddenly getting all of this success while most of the rest of them are languishing in relative international obscurity. Depends on how good the film is, I suppose.

 

It seems like it's doing pretty good for a small film at the box office probably will open around 8-10 million. I have high hopes for this film. Hopefully it stays around long enough to make an impact and take some potential revenue.

 

Portman's ass in Closer:

Behold her engaging behind.

 

Saw it today. Portman and Owen are definitely the standout performances, but Law and Roberts to a good job as well. I truly hope that Owen gets the role of James Bond, as he seems to have the cold yet sauve characteristics necessary for the character.
As for Portman, any doubt that she is not that great an actress may be laid to rest with this movie. I have always thought that the only reason she wasn't so great in the SW movies was because of GL's lackluster attention to acting, and this movie pretty much confirms my suspicion. She deserves a nom. and hopefully this will help her land some leading roles in a movie or two before she decides to retire from acting, though I cannot imagine why she would do so as she definitely has talent.

 

I saw this on Tuesday, but I really wanna see it again. I came in with fair expectations, but was really blown away. The acting was great, as was the dialogue. I agree, Owen probably had the best performance of all.

Everyone was cracking up when Dan pwned Harry on the sex chatroom. I'm reminded of a certain SW message board.

Overall, a great movie, with many great scenes. And a catchy soundtrack.

 

..i saw it last night, too..

Have to agree with Jumpman up above: if the Academy had guts, this would get a nom for best picture..

It's definitely in my top 5 for best films of the year.

I normally despise Julia Roberts with a passion, and find Portman to be a blackhole of talent. Both fully impressed me in this film, and i would not be upset if both received acting nominations.

Heck, i think the entire top 4 deserve acting nominations (i concur that Clive Owen was excellent, but then again, he's ALWAYS excellent)

Very interesting character-study of a bunch of very digusting characters...

 

The movie was just nominated for 5 Golden Globes (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actress - Natalie, and Supporting Actor - Clive).