- Closer (2004) review: In this proudly artificial psychological drama, veteran director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Patrick Marber, adapting his own play, attempt to recreate the dysfunctional universe of heterosexual relationships previously seen – in more profound fashion – in Nichols’ own Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
- In the four-pronged cast, Julia Roberts is the sole performer who delivers a well-rounded characterization.
- Closer synopsis: Alice (Natalie Portman), an American immigrant in London, is struck by a taxi. Dan (Jude Law) helps her; they become an item. A year later, Dan flirts with another American, Anna (Julia Roberts), who, through Dan (posing as Anna online), meets (and marries) Larry (Clive Owen), who later tries to hook up with Alice.
Closer (2004) review: Mike Nichols’ latest take on dysfunctional heterosexual couples is no Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Mike Nichols’ first feature, a big-screen transfer of Edward Albee’s acclaimed Broadway play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, is a harrowing dissection of two married couples whose inner demons are let loose during a night of drinking, game playing, and out-of-control yelling. That was back in 1966. Fast forward to 2004 and to another Mike Nichols-directed big-screen transfer of an acclaimed play, Patrick Marber’s Closer, also about two dysfunctional heterosexual couples, but this time in the age of cyberspace and AIDS.
Apart from the fact that the story’s timeframe has been stretched from one night to a couple of years and that the early 21st-century drama takes place in London (instead of New England), on the surface not much has changed in the last four decades: The new quartet of neurotic heterosexual English speakers also dwells in a social bubble in which the participants bicker, yell profanities, pretend to be someone else, and are utterly vicious to one another.
On a deeper level, however, everything has changed.
With the assistance of four actors in top form – Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis, George Segal – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? lays bare the entrails of its characters. Closer, on the other hand, barely scratches the surface of its one-dimensional protagonists, played with varying degrees of effectiveness by Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen, and Natalie Portman.
Closer plot: Edward Albee vs. Patrick Marber
The dramatic chasm separating these two Mike Nichols efforts is clearly a direct consequence of their original sources. While Edward Albee’s words (adapted by Ernest Lehman for the big screen) pierce the carotid, Patrick Marber’s scrape an elbow and break a couple of fingernails.
For although the situations depicted in Closer are supposed to be uncompromisingly blunt, the absence of any sort of psychological context make all that lying, cheating, and nonstop partner-switching come across as mere titillation.
An example: American-born, London-based photographer Anna (Julia Roberts) dumps her dermatologist husband Larry (Clive Owen) for untrustworthy obituary writer Dan (Jude Law) without Marber ever bothering to let us know why Anna and Larry – who seem to be polar opposites – got married in the first place, or what exactly attracted Anna to someone as unappealing as Dan.
Besides, we never get to see the adulterous affair behind Larry’s back or the disintegration of his marriage. Why, then, should anyone care when things become tangled up later on?
Not helping matters is Dan’s off-and-on girlfriend, the mysterious American Alice (Natalie Portman), who aimlessly bounces from here to there and then back to here again, only to make a momentous decision at the end of the movie that is as unexpected as it is trite; it comes out of nowhere, and – unlike in the play – it goes nowhere. So why bother?
Sex, lies & expletives
Perhaps as a means of taking away our attention from the vapidity of it all, Marber comes up with a full array of sexually explicit lines that are bandied about during heated arguments, e.g., “Do you enjoy sucking him off?” “Yes!” “You like his cock?” “I love it!”
Now, never-ending yelling about the joys of extra-marital fucking may (or may not) shock the pious, but it will probably leave most filmgoers feeling merely impatient. For no matter how many times Closer’s four characters resort to sex talk – and that is all the sex they have on screen – nothing dissipates the overall artificiality of the dialogue and situations.
In the confines of the stage, such lack of realism may be permitted or even strived for, but in the naturalistic settings of Mike Nichols’ London it just looks silly.
Piling on the nonsense, an unnecessary plot twist before the final credits feels like a gratuitous head-scratcher, adding nothing to our understanding of what went on earlier. (No, it doesn’t involve Dan and Larry hooking up for life, though that would have explained a lot about their behavior toward women.)
Julia Roberts shines, Jude Law does Alfie reprise
Despite the poorly delineated characters that inhabit the Closer realm, Mike Nichols, known for his capable handling of actors (Ann-Margret in Carnal Knowledge, Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl, etc.), elicits at least a modicum of substance from three of the four leads – with Natalie Portman’s irredeemably stilted Alice being the sole exception.
Stripped of every artifice that has hampered some of her previous work, a mature Julia Roberts (Best Actress Oscar winner for the inane Erin Brockovich, 2000) shines as Anna, bringing a much needed touch of warmth to a role that in a less capable actress’ hands would have come across as a pathetic nonentity. Roberts, in fact, is Closer’s only performer to fully rise above the screenplay’s shortcomings.
Clive Owen, who played Dan in the original stage production, displays a strong, magnetic screen presence that would have made even Clark Gable shudder. Yet this otherwise capable actor is ultimately unable to transform stagy lines into real-life talk.
Jude Law has a couple of good dramatic moments when he realizes that others can play his game as well as he does, but his attempts to make his immature lover boy charming fall flat. After all, Dan is nothing more than Alfie Elkins’ obnoxious twin brother – something that makes Alice’s and, particularly, Anna’s infatuation with him seem patently absurd.
Melodramatic tricks & ‘shocking’ banalities
In the final analysis, Mike Nichols and Patrick Marber’s Closer fails for the same reason that its truth-impaired characters fail to connect with one another: The movie keeps us at a distance from its core, focusing instead on melodramatic tricks and “shocking” banalities.
Those looking for a truly fearless take on dysfunctional human relationships may want to skip this Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? redux and check out the original instead.
Closer (2004) cast & crew
Director: Mike Nichols.
Screenplay: Patrick Marber.
From his own 1997 play.Cast:
Julia Roberts … Anna
Jude Law … Dan
Natalie Portman … Alice
Clive Owen … Larry
Nick Hobbs … Taxi Driver
Colin Stinton … Customs OfficerCinematography: Stephen Goldblatt.
Film Editing: John Bloom, Antonia Van Drimmelen.
Producers: Mike Nichols, John Calley, and Cary Brokaw.
Production Design: Tim Hatley.
Costume Design: Ann Roth.
Production Company: Inside Track 2 | Aquarium Productions | Avenue Pictures | Columbia Pictures.
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing.
Running Time: 104 min.
Country: United States.
“Closer (2004): The Perfect Dysfunctional Date Movie” notes
Closer Academy Awards
Closer received two Academy Award nominations:
- Best Supporting Actress (Natalie Portman).
- Best Supporting Actor (Clive Owen).
Though shortlisted in the supporting categories throughout awards season, both Natalie Portman and Clive Owen have about as much screen time as Closer’s nominal (non-nominated) “leads” Julia Roberts and Jude Law.
Awards & nominations
Closer won numerous awards, including:
- British Academy Awards (BAFTAs): Best Supporting Actor (Clive Owen).
- 2 Golden Globes: Best Supporting Actor (Clive Owen) and Best Supporting Actress (Natalie Portman).
- New York Film Critics Circle: Best Supporting Actor (Clive Owen).
- Toronto Film Critics Association: Best Supporting Actor (Clive Owen).
- National Board of Review: Best Ensemble (Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen, Natalie Portman).
- San Diego Film Critics Society: Best Supporting Actress (Natalie Portman).
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society: Best Supporting Actor (Clive Owen).
Closer received a number of other nominations/mentions, including:
- 2 additional BAFTA nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Natalie Portman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Patrick Marber).
- 3 additional Golden Globe nominations: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director (Mike Nichols), and Best Screenplay (Patrick Marber).
Closer movie credits via the American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog website.
Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts Closer movie images: Columbia Pictures.
“Closer (2004): The Perfect Dysfunctional Date Movie” last updated in December 2023.
2 comments
I feel like this reviewer totally missed the point.
Why do you think the ending is bad?
I thought it was good given Dan’s realization of Alice’s lie about her name. Cutting to her walking on Broadway tells me she’s back in the situation she was when she met eye to eye with Dan in the beginning – almost as if it’s a cyclic process for her. And that she may be the depressive Larry took her for in the conversation with Dan @ his office, after he called her “cold at heart” in the strip club. Quite a lot of significance to me.
First comment in 6 years, srsly? Then again I’ve only just seen the movie.