Vicious, unsentimental wordplay

CLOSER (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Original Review from 2004

"Think of a euphemism for me."

"You are disarming."

"That is not a euphemism."

"Yes, it is."

These are such delicate words, powerfully acted by two lead actors, Natalie Portman and Jude Law, that you would think you were watching a very delicate romantic comedy. Not so. Mike Nichols' adaptation of Patrick Marber's play is vicious, unsentimental wordplay. Imagine watching an Edward Albee play adapted by Neil LaBute and you might get a rough idea of what you are in for.

The setting is modern day London. Jude Law is the failed novelist who writes obits. He notices a beaming young red-haired woman in the street. She is hit by a car but survives with minor wounds. He takes her to the hospital. He is late for work yet he is smitten by her. He goes to work and she leaves. Next scene shows Dan, having his photograph taken for a published novel he has written about Alice - the girl who was hit by a car. The photographer is Anna (Julia Roberts), who is more in love with her camera than with people. She takes her precious camera everywhere, including aquariums. Dan is easily smitten by Anna and asks her out after kissing her (a scene that is breathless in how long the take is focused on them). Anna refuses. And the scene ends with a moment of raw honesty, like most of "Closer."

Then we flash forward a few months later, sometimes a few years later, as Dan sets up a date with Dr. Larry (Clive Owen) by pretending to be Anna in an instant message chat. He asks the doctor to meet Anna at an aquarium and does, and the denouement is surprising for the doctor. Anna starts dating Larry and eventually marries him. Deceit continues despite the fact that Larry may be happily in love with Anna and vice versa. Same with Dan and Alice. Alice works at a strip club and has moved in with Dan. Dan is secretly having an affair with Anna. He admits this to Alice, who of course moves out briskly but not before asking if he ever loved her. Larry arrives back from a business trip and proclaims he had sex with a prostitute. Anna admits she has had an affair with Dan.

If this sounds like daytime soap opera, then it is the foul-mouthed version of it. Except "Closer" invites us to dig deeper, as about as deep as Neil LaBute can get on a good day, and doesn't just aim to shock and numb the audience with naughtiness. The characters aren't so much in love as much as they are in love with the truth - they are dishonest yet are arbiters of the truth when it comes to infidelity. Dan and Alice always get to the naked truth about whom they have been sleeping with, and why. Anna seeks to tell the truth but keeps delaying it. Larry is set in his ways, and plays games only to get what he wants - Anna as his wife. He even gets her to sleep with him to justify his signing the divorce papers. Mike Nichols makes this a modern-day tale of the lack of values and ethics in relationships and marriages. There are surprising and disturbing insights into how far people will go to hurt each other, though it is absurd to assume that Nichols is suggesting all relationships are like the ones depicted here. Instead, he chooses actors who infuse the characters with layers of humanity and heart so it makes it harder to pull away. Clive Owen shows what a bastard Larry is, but he also demonstrates the pain he feels not just in belaboring Anna's sexual preferences explicitly but also in knowing that she may not love him anymore. Julia Roberts shows the compassionate side of Anna, the observer of all, who may be more attuned to her feelings than anyone else. Still, she succumbs to deceit in the end. Then there is Jude Law who brings a morose puppy-dog look to Dan - he looks for truth in Alice and is resentful when she is honest. Yet he also resents doing the same. And the enigmatic Alice is looking for companionship and possibly love, but she may be as lost as anyone in the entire film. Can any of these people ever get along?

"Closer" is a cinematically rendered play, but a damn good one in every respect. Mike Nichols shows us frequent close-ups, examining the hurt and pain etched in each of his actors' faces (as he did in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?") This is a movie of pure talk, one of the best reasons to see films nowadays. Of course, adapting a play to film can be tricky because you don't want to seem too talky - cinema has the capability to transfer small moments of observation with silence and gestures, tactics that are invisible in a play. Mike Nichols has the cinematic lure down pat, and consequently the words and gestures are magnified by the actors' divine, fascinating, introspective faces. There was a time when dialogue was as central to a film's success as any other aspect. The words in this film burn with such vitality that you'll be exhausted and yet enlightened. Sometimes, there are truly penetrating words referring to bodily fluids and sexual practices. But if you have seen "Carnal Knowledge," one of Nichols' earlier pictures, you will not be surprised that he is revisiting such roughly-hewn material.

It is not fair to single one actor out from the group. All perform as well as expected. Julia Roberts proves once again what a wonderful character actress she can be - it may help that she barely elicits that famous wide grin throughout. Jude Law is as perfect as he can be as the bookish, sad lover who is never satisfied with anyone. Clive Owen simply lacerates the screen with his roguish, haughty presence. Only Natalie Portman falls short of really pulling her character through - she seemed more at ease in "Garden State." Here, she seems unsure of herself, which may benefit the character though Alice remains too much of a cipher. Still, I admired many of Portman's scenes and consequently admire her for taking on such a risky role.

It is often said that audiences expect movies to uplift, to ease the cold, harsh realities of the world they live in. A dour picture like "Closer" will not make audiences sympathetic to the cold, harsh realities of love and the loveless that exist. And yet I found this film more optimistic than most dramas or romantic comedies about love - the closer you get to the reality of this movie, the better you'll feel that you may not have experienced the harshness, the pain, the guilt of loving someone. Or not.

Run, Julia, Run!

RUNAWAY BRIDE (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia (Original Review from 1999)

Imagine Joan Cusack as a weird, wild and wonderful woman with certain insecurities about herself, living in a town not unlike Mayberry or Pleasantville. She falls in love with an older reporter (Hector Elizondo) who comes into town trying to verify rumors about a bride who runs from every wedding opportunity, hence Cusack. Cusack falls for the old tiger, but differences settle in about age and she confides in a therapist (Richard Gere) who is a bespectacled man with a mustache - somewhere within this stiff she finds an attractive man if he would only shave that mustache and remove the glasses. Unfortunately. Gere has an attractive sister (Julia Roberts) who tries to protect him from her wooing. Naturally, Cusack ends up with Elizondo but there is a sense of bitterness and sadness that she did not end up with Gere. Alas, "Runaway Bride," although be warned that the plot description I just offered is not the movie itself. This is simply something I thought of while watching and trying to stay awake with this stale, laughless stupidity of a movie.

In reality, Garry Marshall's latest romantic comedy confection stars Richard Gere as "Ike" Graham, a columnist for the USA Today who has trouble coming up with any fresh ideas. He resorts to going to the local bar and is inspired by a patron who speaks of a "runaway bride," a woman who leaves men at the altar. Almost immediately Ike writes the column based on the patron's testimony (though this is never really made clear). Women on the street berate Ike and hit him on the head with rolled-up newspapers before he discovers a snarling letter from the bride herself printed by the editor. Apparently, Ike misrepresented many facts and exaggerated many figures. He is fired by the editor, his former wife (Rita Wilson). Now, Ike goes to this picture-postcard, Mayberry-like town and confronts the snarling woman, Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts). She is about to get married again, and Ike senses that she will run like a rabbit again. Or will she succumb to Gere's charm and smooth-talking demeanor? And is it possible that good romantic comedies are a thing of the past?

Basically, the formula is set up for this movie, and all the cliches are in place and nothing else. This is one of the most charmless, dullest and periodically dumbest movies I have ever seen. How can a respected director like Marshall reduce Gere and Roberts to cardboard cutouts with about as much sex and romantic appeal as a pair of refrigerators? Roberts is actually boring to watch in this movie - her wide grins and "duckbill platypus" mugging is unflattering to say the least. Gere seems more stiff than ever, and shares no charisma or chemistry with Roberts. Interesting, considering what a solid pair they were in "Pretty Woman," also directed by Marshall. I never understood the latter's success but it had gobs of wit and real emotions unlike this scrap heap. Nevertheless, Gere and Roberts felt like real people in that movie - here they are sitcom variations.

While desperately trying to stay awake, I noticed a couple of nods to "Pretty Woman," a cameo by Garry Marshall at a baseball game, and a video copy of "The Graduate," one of my favorite comedies of all time. There also is one good line about Fed-Ex trucks, and a couple of briefly delicious moments by the droll Elizondo. Outside of that, this "Bride" is of little merit. Even the quirky Joan Cusack (not weird as she is described by Roberts) is often excruciating. Jean Schertler as Grandma supplies a couple of chuckles but nothing more. And for trivia buffs, there is Julia's sister, Lisa Roberts, as "Elaine from Manhattan" in one scene.

Forget the silly "Pretty Woman," "Notting Hill," released earlier this year, was one of the best films of Julia's career - she carried the film with grace and subtlety and had the good sense of co-starring with the daffy Hugh Grant. They had sweet chemistry and had a solidly good script to boot from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" scribe, Richard Curtis. "Runaway Bride" has none of those virtues and seems to have been made in a rush. My advice to Ms. Roberts about future romantic comedies is to follow Lola's example: Run Julia Run!