I forgot to mention this in the chaos of the past few days. I picked up Closer the other day, mainly because I like Clive Owen (he should be the next Bond, and I loved I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead) and because I was thrilled about seeing Natalie Portman prancing around in a thong on my widescreen. Sue me- progressive scan DVD players and HDtv’s rule.
I watched the movie, and I have this to say- I am no prude, but Closer was the filthiest movie I have ever watched in my entire life. That title had been reserved for The Postman Always Rings Twice for a certain scene that still mortifies my mother, but they were pikers compared to the directors of Closer.
And all the damned cheating. Just infuriates me. Overall- color me unimpressed.
Dodd
So, on the one hand, you seem not to have liked it much. OTOH, “Natalie Portman prancing around in a thong” has got to be the most ringing endorsement of a product I have ever encountered in my life.
A rental, then?
Andrew J. Lazarus
I recommend Two Girls and a Guy, European-edited edition. Your mother hasn’t seen anything yet.
Rob Bernard
The movie made my Top 20 of ’04 list at #4 but I think they’re doing the movie a grave disservice by promoting it on the box as “a love story for adults”. It’s really not a love story, it’s a tragedy. It’s a movie about people doing stupid, hurtful things but for believable reasons. If you go in expecting a love story I think you’re going to be appalled. If you expect tragedy I think it comes out a much better movie.
John Cole
Dodd:
I was afraid I was going to wear out my remote control during the Portman scenes.
Rob- Agreed. Still, just not overly impressed.
Brian J.
But aren’t cheating and promiscuity really just gritty authenticity or perhaps a metaphor for modern intellectual life of common people or….
Who cares! Let the unbridled rutting commence!
Bryant
It’s not at all a love story, yeah. It’s one of the bitterest, most cynical movies I’ve seen in a while. I thought the acting was good (Owen and Portman and Law, not so much Roberts) and it was well directed and so on, but wow. Bitter.
Huck
This is weird. I just watched it last night also. Was it just me, or did the dialogue come across as “stagey” to you? I mean it sounded written and stilted, even the filthy parts. I think it was adapted from a play and that’s exactly the dialogue sound.
JF
I didn’t think the movie was as filthy as it was just crap…..
Bryant
Yeah, it was adapted from a stage play. As I recall, Clive Owen had the Jude Law role in the stage production.
Justin O.
Haven’t seen Closer, but check out The Aviator.
Martin Scorcese did a fantastic job directing the eccentricities into Howard Hughes life.
David Margolies
I cannot resist telling my Closer story. I saw the play, and the scene where the two guys are in a chat room was done by having each character on part of the state typing at a terminal while the chat was projected onto the wall behind them. At one point the projected chat froze, and the actors noticed this and one, out of character, said `Stage manager, there is a problem’. Then we all waited while (still projecting) we saw the blue screen of death, then the startup screen, the windows desktop, powerpoint starting, and back to the chat display (and the play). Just as the computer restarted, someone in the audience shouted `This wouldn’t have happened if you had used a Mac!’
As to the movie, what was with the Julia Roberts character? See a good psychologist! They have drugs for conditions like yours and I am told they work pretty well.
Justin Slotman
Huck, I also noticed that–watching it and saying to myself “These people are talking like characters in a play.”
Let us all mourn the loss of the Portman nude scene, which Mike Nichols decided was not artistically necessary, even as an extra on the DVD.