Fair warning: This is one of those reviews that makes people hate movie reviews.
Many - maybe most - of those who see "Closer" will find it shocking, boring, vulgar, confusing or blasphemous, and will never understand why anybody would enjoy the experience.
That is why I recommend "Closer" as the best date movie of the holiday season.
Leaping selectively across a multi-year span in the lives of four Londoners who fall in and out of each others lives, "Closer" examines only the beginnings and endings of the relationships between Jude Law's obituary writer, Natalie Portman's American stripper, Clive Owen's aggressive dermatologist and Julia Roberts' photographer.
Their paths cross in entirely happenstance meetings, from an Internet-porn chat site to the scene of a car accident, and end in emotional storms as each struggles to disentangle themselves from the others in order to get closer to the one they covet.
This newest film from Mike Nichols, director of HBO's "Angels in America," will probably send diehard "Runaway Bride" and "My Best Friend's Wedding" fans stumbling out of the theater in openmouthed shock.
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The real stunner in this movie, though, is Portman, who more than adequately punches and tears her way out of the potentially career-ending trap of the "Star Wars" movies and onto the level of a serious actress.
The core of the movie is the bracingly harsh dialogue and the intense performances given by each of the central actors and the shock the sexually and emotionally frank subject matter can deliver to the system of a viewer expecting nothing more challenging than "Christmas With the Kranks."
No other movie this year will provoke more intriguing and revealing responses on issues of sex and love. Whether you are with a blind date or a spouse, you should see "Closer," then spend the rest of the night arguing over, relating with, or denying what you've seen. You may be surprised by how affected - or disaffected - your loved one will be by an appraisal of adult relationships more candid than your average sitcom.
On at least two occasions, Owen responds to brutally honest statements he clearly did not want to hear with, "Thank you for your honesty."
"Closer" is a brutally honest, thought-provoking and boundary-pushing film, which is exactly what is needed for a discussion of topics so central to our lives, yet so often neglected, glossed over or simplified. Those affected by it will be thankful for its honesty.
Closer
Rated: R
Grade: A
