Closer

James Berardinelli says, in regards to Closer, the new Mike Nichols film, starring Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, and the fucking FANTASTIC Clive Owen:

From a physical standpoint, Closer is not a violent film. From an emotional one, it’s brutal. Nichols doesn’t pull his punches. You leave the theater shaken.

That’s pretty much the size of it. The script is so good that I actually felt I was on drugs or something, watching the movie.

It was one of those heightened experiences as an audience member- the acting was universally terrific (although Clive Owen … Jesus feckin’ Christ, that guy can ACT), you never knew what these characters would do next (and this wasn’t a gimmick – it felt like real life – you know how people do incomprehensible things in real life? It was like that) … but throughout it all, I would have these intense heightened moments of awareness, thinking: HOLY CRAP, the SCRIPT. The SCRIPT.

I am dying to get my hands on the script. I want to work on this shit in my acting class. You want to say these words out loud. Screenplays like this one do not come around often. This one was, of course, based on a play … You could tell. The scenes were long, sometimes they were 3 times as long as normal scenes in movies … I felt like a kid in a candy store. I love long scenes – if they’re done well, I mean. It reminded me a bit (even though the movie is totally different) of the almost voracious pleasure I got out of seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time. In particular, I remember watching the loooooong scene in the Movie Star restaurant between Travolta and Thurman, when they’re on the date, sitting across the table from one another – I remember thinking, as I watched the scene, “Jesus … this is long.”

That is not a bad thing. I become so used to normal shallow conventional movies – where scenes last 2 minutes a piece, usually.

But that scene? And the LANGUAGE they got to say … it was delicious to watch. I ached with jealousy. I wanted to say those words.

The words of the Closer script reminded me of that, even though it’s a bleak movie, an emotional battering-ram movie. But the language …

And Clive Owen.

I mean, everyone … but Owen in particular. He, for me, was the revelation.

Berardinelli says – about Owen:

In Closer, the actors get a chance to shine, and no one is brighter than Clive Owen. Despite a number of memorable turns (and one big mistake: King Arthur), Owen still lacks household recognition. A likely (and deserved) Oscar nomination for this performance will change that. The ferocity with which Owen delivers his lines, and the restless energy he imparts to Larry, electrifies every scene that he’s in.

He is … I’ve got no words here. It’s juicy, real, frightening, unpredictable, specific … It’s acting. The kind of acting that turns me on. He’s so damn ALIVE.

Berardinelli says, in re: Julia Roberts:

This is Roberts the actress, not Roberts the movie star (see Ocean’s Twelve if you’re craving for the latter), and her dedication to the role rather than glamour serves her well.

Yes. Yes. Good for her, man. Good for her. A courageous choice for her, and she has one moment in particular that I already want to see again. The second it was over, I thought: Shit, wish there was a Rewind button. That was pretty damn fantastic, whatever that moment was!!

She wears no makeup, she’s not a sympathetic character, she’s kind of pathetic on one level, and she doesn’t do the big Julia-Robert-smile thing ONCE. Mike Nicholes has stripped her of all of her tricks, all her movie star-ness, he won’t let her rely on the Julia-Roberts-trademark stuff that every other director probably demands from her … and what happened withOUT all of that movie-star-stuff around her is that an actress emerged. A real actress. Good good stuff.

All I can say is: This is one of those refreshing examples of an ADULT MOVIE, with ADULT SENSIBILITIES – made for adults, not pandering to a younger audience. They don’t really make “adult movies” that much anymore. I’m not talking about “adult” in terms of the amount of sex scenes, or nudity. There are no sex scenes in Closer, although the talk about sex is quite graphic. When I say “adult”, I mean: challenging, unforgiving, clear-eyed, open – about tough truths, about what it is to be a human being. Not catering to the lowest common denominator … Closer leaves a lot up to the audience. It doesn’t decide FOR you how you should feel about these people. Closer is a film that respects the intelligence of the audience, and THAT, I think, is an “adult” film.

It’s a delicious film, in that respect, a sheer surprise and pleasure from beginning to end – even though the story it tells is disturbing as all hell.

See it. Clive Owen will blow you away.

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14 Responses to Closer

  1. Emily says:

    I’ve been impressed by Clive Owen for some time now, totally aside from the fact that he’s drop dead GORGEOUS. I hope this film finally brings him the recognition and wider attention he deserves.

  2. red says:

    He and Julia Roberts have an extended fight-scene which is some of the best acting she has ever done, in my opinion – and he is on FIRE. We were in a packed movie theatre, not one seat available, and you could have heard a pin drop during that scene.

    He’s the real deal. This guy is a true actor. See the movie, if you haven’t Emily – especially if you love this guy.

    And yeah. He’s hot. Hot hot hot.

  3. Lisa says:

    I think this movie is going to be like “The English Patient” in that if you liked it, you LOVED it, and if you didn’t like it, you HATED it.

    I was reading a review of it in the Friday edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the reviewer gave it an “A.” Then immediately after that the movie guy on CNN This Morning went on and on about how bad it was.

    I’m still going to see it though, if only because Clive Owen is Hottie McHotness, Mayor of HottieTown. (Your review didn’t hurt, either, Sheila. I trust your judgment. :))

  4. Bernard says:

    Yes, Sheila. You’re definitely my kind of reviewer. (Although I sorta already thought I kinda knew the movie was good from watching the commercials.)

  5. Bud says:

    Recommendation for you, Sheila, that might help stoke your Clive Fire — If you haven’t seen the several series of “Second Sight” (they were on PBS’s Mystery a few years back; probably on DVD now). Clive plays a detective chief inspector who’s visually impaired; good stories, great acting. But I would imagine that you’re developing your Clive list by now!

    I’m glad to read your praise of Julia. There’s something about her that I’ve always found very appealing, not just sexually but likable and engaging somehow, despite how so many of her performances have seemed somewhat limited in the way that you characterize. “Closer” has been addded to my Netflix list.

  6. El Capitan says:

    More on Clive…

    I traveled 30 miles to an out-of-the-way arthouse cinema just to catch ‘Croupier’ on the advice of a friend. It was my first time to see Clive Owen in a film, and I was quite impressed. Very low-key style, but real strength underneath. Still waters run deep, as they say. Anyway, it’ll be hard to find as a rental, but if you like Owen, go ahead and buy ‘Croupier’, you won’t be disappointed.

    I will say that “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’ left me absolutely flat. What a terrible ending to a virtually pointless movie. Was Clive Owen supposed to be in a relationship with Charlotte Rampling? Ick, it made me feel like he was dating his mother!

    And the less said about ‘King Arthur’, the better, IMHO…

  7. beth says:

    but what’s it ABOUT?

  8. Yea, I generally liked it, despite some reservations (I LOATHE Julia Roberts, for one thing). But yea, Owen was great.

  9. Linus says:

    I’ve always liked Julia Roberts, and I’m glad she is getting this sudden chance to be taken seriously. I’m not fanatical about her – and yes, the mouth thing is a bit scary sometimes – but if you watch her carefully there are frequently very strong choices behind what she does, even in the most commercial flicks, and she cleaves to them with full abandon. It’s one of her real talents that we frequently don’t notice the choices, and read them as flat road instead.

    Unlike many of the cookie-cutter stars, you can’t simply lift her out of one movie and put her in another; she plays characters, different in degrees perhaps but different nevertheless.

    And let’s remember that just about all actors have sins in their résumés – even Clive Owen

  10. red says:

    I’ve always been a big Julia Roberts fan, even though I am also enormously jealous. We;re the same age. You get the picture.

    I love Erin Brockovich. I LOVE Notting Hill.

    In my opinion, she’s best when she’s in an ensemble piece, surrounded by great actors (like in Notting Hill and Brockovich and Closer) … than when she is the only big name in the film. she’s better when, actually, she is part of a larger ensemble.

    And I don’t care what anyone says. I love Pretty Woman. I’ve seen it 20 times.

  11. Colleen says:

    From James Lileks “The Bleat”:


    It’s amusing to read reviews of “Closer”, a film that sounds like 100 minutes of attenuated gum surgery: four shallow bitter people trading lacerating quips with their transient sex partners. If you believe that puddle-deep self-obsessed people engaged in two-backed beast construction is somehow the most illustrative example of the human condition, I suppose the movie will strike you as high art, but the notion that trivial people screw a lot and argue afterwards is as illuminating as the fact that dogs don’t get married after they knock paws. Of course, that’s the nature of art: it celebrates the abberant, be it the abberantly lovely or the abberantly horrid. But try and sell the critics and producers on the idea that a happy marriage with kids has more to say about the human heart than a tale of a 40 year old man who throws over his family for a 16-year old stripper. Hah!”

    And I say “Amen”.

  12. red says:

    Well, as an actress, I can tell you that there is nothing inherently dramatic about a “happy marriage with kids”. No one will go see it, unless there is conflict. Without CONFLICT, there is no DRAMA. It’s all about people NOT getting what they want, behaving in incomprehensible ways, people facing obstacles, etc. All the way back to Oedipus this has been true.

    I get frustrated with people who want to have art reflect nice happy values, and things they themselves value. I don’t go to the movies, or read books, to meet people I agree with. Or to meet people who are living the “right” kind of life. Yawn. I go to see movies to see people in CRISIS, in difficulty, etc., I go to movies to see people freaking OUT (I’m thinking now of Requiem for a Dream, of Fearless, of Another Woman) And through these movies, I get to have a catharsis. Another essential part of drama, according to Aristotle. I watched Clive Owen’s performance – and he is a nasty nasty man in this film – but through my watching him, I had a catharsis. I had feelings, emotions, thoughts … and THAT’S why I go to the movies.

    I don’t care what Lileks says, as much as I love him. My interest is always in the art of acting itself, and you can’t get much better than Clive Owen in this film.

  13. red says:

    And “celebrates the aberrant”? Gimme a break. Sorry. To each his own, I suppose, but that is not my view AT ALL. This movie is anything BUT a celebration.

  14. Jake says:

    “It’s all about people NOT getting what they want, behaving in incomprehensible ways, people facing obstacles, etc.”

    I agree. Such is the clever, yet obvious subject matter in American Beauty. That movie is still my favorite. It exposes the roles we play in every day society, and how those roles betray our true identities.

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