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After watching Alfie which was pretty good, I thought Jude Law might be in another good movie but I was wrong. The story is about a love square between 4 characters, and how they get switched around all the time. Its a movie about sex really, and about a sex-addict doctor who you can tell in the movie he is absolutely crazy, and the other characters who just want to pursue each other for sexual pleasures. It was pretty interesting in the begginging with everything that happened including how the couples met, and the acting was very good too. The only problem is that the story never went anywhere. Whenever you think something is going to happen, nothing does. Its almost like watching teenagers on screen with the "i love you, wait not anymore i love him now" sort of conversations, making the movie actually pretty ridiculous and leading nowhere. If I had to give it a rating Id probably say 2/5 because it did have good acting and a good beggining, but the movie lacked everything else.
Closer (2004)
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Ah that stinks, I had high expectations for this movie. It sounded so interesting in the previews. I hasn't come out in COllege Station yet but I still plan on seeing it if fopr no other reason than Natalie Portman, I am still going to hold out hope for it though (fingers crossed).
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This was a great film that was extremely raw ad gritty. Great plot and the intense and funny conversations beetween characters was hilarious. Plus natalie portman is hot.
This is the movie with Julia Roberts in it? The one where when the preview comes on TV I quickly turn the channel and say "sheesh"?
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LordChuchu I had a totally different read on the movie. First, let me say that Alfie was awful, but that's a discussion for a different tread. Next, Closer wasn't about sex. It's about love, and how differing ideas of what love is lead to clonflict in relationships. This movie isn't great, but it is very well acted, has good camera work and art design, and most importantly a story that examines ugly truth rather that pretty convention. Actually, for, as you say, a movie about sex, this film sure lacked sex.
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Originally Posted by Urban Cowboy
LordChuchu I had a totally different read on the movie. First, let me say that Alfie was awful, but that's a discussion for a different tread. Next, Closer wasn't about sex. It's about love, and how differing ideas of what love is lead to clonflict in relationships. This movie isn't great, but it is very well acted, has good camera work and art design, and most importantly a story that examines ugly truth rather that pretty convention. Actually, for, as you say, a movie about sex, this film sure lacked sex.
I agree but I dont believe that the movie portrays an accurate vision of relationships. It seems more of a teenage drama then what an actual adult relationship is, unless someone actually tries to marry a prostitute of course. It is very well acted but the story just seems too "fake" to give a general view on what relationships are like.
Originally Posted by LordChuchu
I agree but I dont believe that the movie portrays an accurate vision of relationships. It seems more of a teenage drama then what an actual adult relationship is, unless someone actually tries to marry a prostitute of course. It is very well acted but the story just seems too "fake" to give a general view on what relationships are like.
What kind of relationships do you have? A teenage drama? The movie gave a good look into the truth. Not a happy feel good chich flick. Life really is that skrewed up and it shows you that love hurts. Cowboy is right, there was no sex in it, it was all about betrayal and deciet.
Aha! I'm back from outerspace to say ...
I just saw this and would give it 4/5 ... mainly because it was a very "blinders-on-a-pell-mell-path" vision of a play that was already one-track minded. However, working with what you've got, the film turned out to be pretty good and could have been a lot worse.
Mainly, the dialogue was at several points unbelievable and play-like - as in, you could totally see the "pose" and composition of the scene, almost like a pencil sketch. Particularly at the end of the film when Clive has to work magic with 360-degree turns of character (I hate you ... please want me ... you're a **** ... why'd you do this to me?) and Natalie has to tell Jude, "It's done. Now **** off."
Analogy: Some people can sketch so well on paper the scene is alive, you don't realize it's mere pencil or charcoal that built the vision. And sometimes people can draw a pretty picture but the artifice of it (the pencil/charcoal, contrivance of the scene) is just too obvious for you to get drawn in and suspend your disbelief.
So this happened often in the film, and it's only saving grace was Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. Clive is a veteran, talented actor and the moment I knew he was in it, I knew he'd deliver. Plus I have the hots for him. Natalie was more of a question for me - we saw good things in "Garden State" but that character was just too easy. So, in this one, we see her really dig into it, and do well.
Julia played it safe and added no real depth to her character. She hinted at it, but in the end, she played out her character in an unbelievable light. Basically, for someone to make the choices she did, she needed to have more emotion BEHIND it. More confusion, more loss, more guilt, more selfishness, more fervent submission to something she purportedly didn't want to do. Her character just came out sort of like a bored victim saint. She suffers all of Clive's "roughness" and sorta half ass insists she won't succumb to Jude, then succumbs and behaves just the same as she did after the affair starts, as she did before. So she was just dry, something like a B- in her performance. I think she just misinterpreted her character.
This all points also to something someone wrote in a newspaper review i read ... somewhere. Hehehe. They basically said the play, and therefore the movie, is writing about caricatures and puppets acting out a sketch (pencil, charcoal). These people have no backstory beyond their jobs and the initial sexual intrigue that connects each (how jude met natalie, how julia met clive). So they are totally isolate, which is also unrealistic, which is also why it was hard to suspend disbelief.
<SPOILER>
If they'd given us more moments like the amazing net chat session - now THAT was scene, alive, with characters really getting into emotion, hidden meating, dialogue. IT was funny, raw, and REAL. TRUE. People really do that, and do it that way.
</SPOILER>
As for the story and the crudity, etc. - like I said, Natalie and Clive made more of it than Jude/Julia. Though also perhaps it's bias, we end up liking those two characters more than the other two, based on their actions. But honestly I think the story needed more filler, we needed more true behavior and dialogue, and all that just points to the script. The script was a C- and the cast turned it into a B+. Which is why it gets 4/5 stars. It was trying to access how people treat one another when they THINK it's love they know and are after, but in the end, it's all a selfish idea of love.
The truest love was Natalie's, and she put it best - "Why won't you let me love you? why won't you be satisfied with what I've got to give you? Why are you chasing someone else right in front of me?" She refused to play the evil game the others play of marking lines, taking possession, and was the wisest - as she told him Clive while he let the betrayal of Julia degrade him, "This is not a war." But for so many, particularly men the film says, it is.
As for Clive, he was openly selfish, so his love was second-truest. His ego was all caught up in his surrender to Julia. It's common enough - you open up and "debase" yourself (give up the self) to someone else, only to find someone ran with it and betrayed you. We then get caught up in the betrayal, feeling stupid, feeling raped, in a way. Being male, Clive was outraged to feel that way, to feel powerless (as women so often do, but we don't get to threaten someone physically as he does, as men do).
But as for Jude/Julia ... they just seemed to sort of slide along into their situation, Jude being petulant and needy as always and that's not a really impressive character interpretation. He does that well - I want to see him do something more challenging.
And that's it!
and did i say again, how hot clive was? julia was a dumb*ss to treat him like she did.
I just saw this and would give it 4/5 ... mainly because it was a very "blinders-on-a-pell-mell-path" vision of a play that was already one-track minded. However, working with what you've got, the film turned out to be pretty good and could have been a lot worse.
Mainly, the dialogue was at several points unbelievable and play-like - as in, you could totally see the "pose" and composition of the scene, almost like a pencil sketch. Particularly at the end of the film when Clive has to work magic with 360-degree turns of character (I hate you ... please want me ... you're a **** ... why'd you do this to me?) and Natalie has to tell Jude, "It's done. Now **** off."
Analogy: Some people can sketch so well on paper the scene is alive, you don't realize it's mere pencil or charcoal that built the vision. And sometimes people can draw a pretty picture but the artifice of it (the pencil/charcoal, contrivance of the scene) is just too obvious for you to get drawn in and suspend your disbelief.
So this happened often in the film, and it's only saving grace was Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. Clive is a veteran, talented actor and the moment I knew he was in it, I knew he'd deliver. Plus I have the hots for him. Natalie was more of a question for me - we saw good things in "Garden State" but that character was just too easy. So, in this one, we see her really dig into it, and do well.
Julia played it safe and added no real depth to her character. She hinted at it, but in the end, she played out her character in an unbelievable light. Basically, for someone to make the choices she did, she needed to have more emotion BEHIND it. More confusion, more loss, more guilt, more selfishness, more fervent submission to something she purportedly didn't want to do. Her character just came out sort of like a bored victim saint. She suffers all of Clive's "roughness" and sorta half ass insists she won't succumb to Jude, then succumbs and behaves just the same as she did after the affair starts, as she did before. So she was just dry, something like a B- in her performance. I think she just misinterpreted her character.
This all points also to something someone wrote in a newspaper review i read ... somewhere. Hehehe. They basically said the play, and therefore the movie, is writing about caricatures and puppets acting out a sketch (pencil, charcoal). These people have no backstory beyond their jobs and the initial sexual intrigue that connects each (how jude met natalie, how julia met clive). So they are totally isolate, which is also unrealistic, which is also why it was hard to suspend disbelief.
<SPOILER>
If they'd given us more moments like the amazing net chat session - now THAT was scene, alive, with characters really getting into emotion, hidden meating, dialogue. IT was funny, raw, and REAL. TRUE. People really do that, and do it that way.
</SPOILER>
As for the story and the crudity, etc. - like I said, Natalie and Clive made more of it than Jude/Julia. Though also perhaps it's bias, we end up liking those two characters more than the other two, based on their actions. But honestly I think the story needed more filler, we needed more true behavior and dialogue, and all that just points to the script. The script was a C- and the cast turned it into a B+. Which is why it gets 4/5 stars. It was trying to access how people treat one another when they THINK it's love they know and are after, but in the end, it's all a selfish idea of love.
The truest love was Natalie's, and she put it best - "Why won't you let me love you? why won't you be satisfied with what I've got to give you? Why are you chasing someone else right in front of me?" She refused to play the evil game the others play of marking lines, taking possession, and was the wisest - as she told him Clive while he let the betrayal of Julia degrade him, "This is not a war." But for so many, particularly men the film says, it is.
As for Clive, he was openly selfish, so his love was second-truest. His ego was all caught up in his surrender to Julia. It's common enough - you open up and "debase" yourself (give up the self) to someone else, only to find someone ran with it and betrayed you. We then get caught up in the betrayal, feeling stupid, feeling raped, in a way. Being male, Clive was outraged to feel that way, to feel powerless (as women so often do, but we don't get to threaten someone physically as he does, as men do).
But as for Jude/Julia ... they just seemed to sort of slide along into their situation, Jude being petulant and needy as always and that's not a really impressive character interpretation. He does that well - I want to see him do something more challenging.
And that's it!
and did i say again, how hot clive was? julia was a dumb*ss to treat him like she did.
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Last edited by thmilin; 07-29-05 at 09:35 PM.
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Hey thmilin'! Nice to see you again! It's me Sades! 
I refuse to watch Julia Roberts movies. I'm at the point where the agony just isn't worth it. I'll make an exception for Oceans 12 if I hear enough good reviews but that's because Brad's in it. I thought about making an exception for Jude Law, but the balance wouldn't be equal...
Anyhoo...good to hear from you!
I refuse to watch Julia Roberts movies. I'm at the point where the agony just isn't worth it. I'll make an exception for Oceans 12 if I hear enough good reviews but that's because Brad's in it. I thought about making an exception for Jude Law, but the balance wouldn't be equal...
Anyhoo...good to hear from you!
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Ok, I just saw Closer and it was a very very good film indeed, sorry LordChuchu. I felt that all of the actors gave fantastic preformances and worked amazingly together. Julia did however do less for me than the other three. This movie gives an amazing glimpse into a love "square" (i think i may have just made up a new term) and shows how revenge, lust, dishonesty and how not knowing what you want out of a relationship can ruin anything that good that could have developed between the two. This movie for me was a 5/5, you are missing something if you don't go see this one.
Thmillin's take was absolutely perfect.
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Mike Nichols, though I've actually been quite dissapointed with any of his output since about... well, 1971. So I'm very glad Closer was an excellent (if at times a bit too similar to a play) film, so I can go rapidly back to loving the guy again.
It really is a good film, though.
And it occurred to me as I exited the theatre what a rare thing that really is.
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Mike Nichols, though I've actually been quite dissapointed with any of his output since about... well, 1971. So I'm very glad Closer was an excellent (if at times a bit too similar to a play) film, so I can go rapidly back to loving the guy again.
It really is a good film, though.
And it occurred to me as I exited the theatre what a rare thing that really is.
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--Winston Churchill
I liked Closer a lot. Clive Owen is simply fantastic in it, and he continues to be one of my favorite actors to watch on screen.
I think Nichols was hoping for something on par with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?...but it isn't that good. I would however put it at the same level as, or maybe even slightly above, his Carnal Knowledge. I think Clive and Julia's characters ending their marriage in Closer is only behind the epic Nicholson/Ann-Margret blow-up in Carnal Klowledge as the best capturing of the pain and anger of a relationship that used to be good but is now all over but the screaming. Great scene.
I too would have liked to see a little more done with the Roberts and Law characters, but the Owen and Portman characters were explored extremely well. As nasty as he could be at times, I was really rooting for Clive's Larry. He had all the best lines and was easy to feel empathy for. For me, anyway. Portman did a remarkable job bringing some real humanity to her performance of somebody who could all too easily have slipped into a charicature.
But I'm fascinated that the film goes that way, that the "leads" of the story (Law and Roberts) are played as sketches and only types, while the supporting interests (Owen and Portman) were given all the real emotional examination and depth. Twists expectations in that sense, and I really loved that approach to the material.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
GRADE: A++
Closer (2004)
GRADE: A-
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
GRADE: A-
I think Nichols was hoping for something on par with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?...but it isn't that good. I would however put it at the same level as, or maybe even slightly above, his Carnal Knowledge. I think Clive and Julia's characters ending their marriage in Closer is only behind the epic Nicholson/Ann-Margret blow-up in Carnal Klowledge as the best capturing of the pain and anger of a relationship that used to be good but is now all over but the screaming. Great scene.
I too would have liked to see a little more done with the Roberts and Law characters, but the Owen and Portman characters were explored extremely well. As nasty as he could be at times, I was really rooting for Clive's Larry. He had all the best lines and was easy to feel empathy for. For me, anyway. Portman did a remarkable job bringing some real humanity to her performance of somebody who could all too easily have slipped into a charicature.
But I'm fascinated that the film goes that way, that the "leads" of the story (Law and Roberts) are played as sketches and only types, while the supporting interests (Owen and Portman) were given all the real emotional examination and depth. Twists expectations in that sense, and I really loved that approach to the material.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
GRADE: A++
Closer (2004)
GRADE: A-
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
GRADE: A-
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
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I saw this film a couple of days ago, and I must say that I was extremely impressed. As mentioned before, Clive Owen is brilliant, as is Natalie Portman. Jude Law's performance didn't really impress me in a way that I thought it would, I expected more - but it is still very compelling. But for me, for the first time ever, Julia Roberts is the stand-out. I usually find her performances too "over-the-top" and annoying, but, in this film, I really loved her performance. I found it beautifully understated and quite layered.
I found the storyline very interesting; it kept me entertained all throughout. Mike Nichols is a director that I don't know that well (I have only seen The Graduate, Catch-22, The Birdcage and Angles In America), but he is easily becoming one of my favorites.
And, not in a long time, have I seen a movie make such great use of music; Damien Rice's The Blower's Daughter sets the mood perfectly.
A brilliant film about love and hate. 4.5/5.
I found the storyline very interesting; it kept me entertained all throughout. Mike Nichols is a director that I don't know that well (I have only seen The Graduate, Catch-22, The Birdcage and Angles In America), but he is easily becoming one of my favorites.
And, not in a long time, have I seen a movie make such great use of music; Damien Rice's The Blower's Daughter sets the mood perfectly.
A brilliant film about love and hate. 4.5/5.
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Movies I Watched Last Week:
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) ****
Drive Well, Sleep Carefully (Justin Mitchell, 2005) ****
Grilled (Jason Ensler, 2006) ****
An Inconvenient Truth (David Guggenheim, 2006) ****
The Family Stone (Thomas Bezucha, 2005) ***1/2
Rocky III (Sylvester Stallone, 1982) ***
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Last edited by liam5000; 01-29-05 at 05:25 AM.
Didn't think too much of it, Clive Owen gave a fantastic peformance though
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