Review of Closer (2004) by Grant L — 16 Oct 2010

The main reason why I really wanted to watch this film was not because of the all star cast but it was two people apart of that cast. Them being Clive Owen and Natlie Portman who both recieved Oscar nominations in the year of 2004.

Also having Julia Roberts helped as well. But I want to start with the people im giving the majority of the credit to and thats Portman and Owen who gave two of their best performances of their carrers and clearly the best in the film and I think they derserved those Oscars they missed out on in 2004, their chemsitry really convinced me that they were in love and out of love just like that.

Their performances were different as well, some that I haven't seen from either of them before and after this film was made. Some people could say that Owen's character was pretty unlikeable but I don't think he was in this to make people like him, he was out to get what he wanted which was love, lust, and lots of sex.

He played the character perfectly to me. As for Julia Roberts and Jude Law they were good as well but i've never been a big fan of Jude Law who to me always plays the same character in every film.

Roberts was really good though and made up for what Law didn't have in their scenes together. She made some really good chemistry with Owen as well especailly when they confronted each other about their cheating on each otherthe first time.

Clive Owen always seemed to know what he was doing and at the end you'll see that he gets what he wants and makes Jude Law's character miserable which was exactly what he wanted to do. Besides the cast, the writing for this film was very good as well with some strong sexual dialogue a lot of the scenes which some people could find offensive but realtionships arent always filled with happy dialogue, most of it come from Owen and Roberts but portman puts her share in as well.

The writing was also smart and filled in some jokes once in a while in the right siuations. The direction from Mike Nichols was good but not great, he makes you have to pay attention to it beacuse the film can jump pretty far at times.

I will say that this film was what I expected because I expected a lot out of the cast and they to me they clearly carried the film throughout with some help from the director. The flaws I have with it is that it can jump out of nowhere and Jude Law's performance wasen't great to me.

I thought the rest of the cast carried the load way more than he did. This was a smart and crude film but I really liked the performances and the writing so if you like anybody included in this cast you should defintley see it.

Good film. 80%.