At one point in Closer, Natalie Portman's character says, "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off," which sums up the movie fairly well: It's all a big twisted lie that supposes to be a brutal truth-telling about love/sex/obsession, and no one ever takes their clothes off. Tragically, little fun was had by me, though I was looking forward to this movie because both Portman and Clive Owen are among my favorites actors. (If you're unfamiliar with Owen, skip this movie and rent Croupier. Fucking amazing.) They definitely give the strongest performances of the movie, but it's not enough. Julia's not asked to do a whole lot, and her vacuity actually works well with her character -- because we are never given any reason why she acts like she does. Or why we're supposed to care. Jude Law is likewise a little too weak to care about, and he seems to follow women like a puppy dog in this movie, generating little sympathy or interest from me. The plot skips about in such a way that you are reminded that this was once a play, but that really doesn't work well for the movie. We don't see any establishment of the relationships between Portman/Law or Roberts/Owen and thus why should we give a fuck when Law/Roberts mess with the order of things?
All in all, a pointless exercise. I think we're supposed to be shocked by some of the things that were said, but I was much more shocked by how little I cared.
No comments:
Post a Comment