CLOSER
Directed by Mike Nichols
In theatres
(*****)
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Written By: John H. Foote
     Mike Nichols is enjoying something of a career renaissance this past year with the enormous success of his television film for HBO Angels in America (2003) which swept the Emmy Awards winning an incredible 11 including every single major award. Through the course of his impressive career he has directed some of the greatest films of the last forty years including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Graduate (1967), for which he won the Academy Award as best director, Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990),Primary Colors (1998) and for television, Wit (2000). Renowned for his talents with actors, Nichols brings out the finest in his performers, and Oscar nominations in the acting categories seem to come attached to his films.
  
Closer his newest film seems destined for Academy Award attention and perhaps a few wins. This is familiar ground for Nichols, as he again explores dysfunctional relationships torn apart by mind games and sex. Both Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Carnal Knowledge (1971) walked us through this territory, though neither was as vicious as this picture. Once again, Nichols draw exceptional performances from his strong cast, including a surprising one from Julia Roberts in the tough role of Anna.
  
The picture is based on the popular London play by Patrick Marber which explores in graphic detail the relationships and wars between four people who enter in and out of one another’s lives over the course of the film. Anna (Roberts) is an attractive photographer who uses the truth as her weapon and she wields a mighty sword; Dan (Jude Law) falls in love/lust with her despite his relationship with Alice (Natalie Portman) a young stripper, and Larry (Clive Owen) cannot understand why his precious Anna would prefer Dan to him. The men seem more concerned with playing nasty games with one another rather than treasuring the time with their women, and as they switch partners back and forth we begin to see the inner child in them. Vicious head games are played, people are humiliated and they came to understand what the others are to them in this acerbic and quite brilliant film.

   Roberts is truly a revelation as Anna. Despite an Academy Award for best actress for her fine performance in Erin Brockovich (2000) there are still those out there who doubt the talent of Julia Roberts. Cast as the cruel and somewhat vicious Anna she is positively brilliant giving the kind of brave performance Nichols is recognized in bringing out of his actors. Never before has Roberts been so electrifying and focused on film; this is a major performance.

   Stealing the show however is Natalie Portman as Alice the kind of gutsy performance that will forever be recognized as the moment Portman became a major actress. Indeed this performance might just win her the Academy Award for best supporting actress. Bringing a waifish quality to her character this is still a woman who takes her clothes off for a living and knows [precisely the spell she casts over men who lust for her. Though naïve, there is a steely resolve within her that makes her a born survivor.
  
Clive Owen and Jude Law deliver equally fine performances though I must confess I did not like their characters, perhaps because they demonstrate men at their very worst. Jealous little school boys trying to one up one another, the games they play humiliate their target yet in the end it is they who are most hurt and wounded by their foolish games that clearly display an insecurity they will never get past. Owen is particularly fine as Larry; his finest moments come in a nasty sequence with Roberts when he angrily demands that she tell in detail about her lovemaking with Dan, insisting to know how he tasted.
  
The actors clearly know they are working with a fine screenplay and a director who believes in them and each rises to the challenge. For anyone who ever thought Julia Roberts would never again approach the level of artistry she did with Erin Brockovich (2000) think again, she is brilliant. Most exciting is Portman who finally after several years in the business arrives into the ranks of major actresses. Fearless in the handling of this difficult role which includes nudity she is nothing less than astonishing, making good on the promises she displayed last year in Cold Mountain (2003) she becomes the front runner for the Oscar.
  
One of the year’s best films; a magnificent achievement for all.










 
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