Genre: Romance, Drama, Infidelity, Marriage, Love Triangle, Love, Doctor, Erotic, Betrayal, Mistaken Identity, Melodrama
Tagline: If you believe in love at first sight, you never stop looking.
Plot: Are humans meant to mate for life? What drives someone in a perfectly good relationship to cheat and risk losing the one that they love and that loves them? Is it possible to love more than one person at the same time? How well does anyone really know the one that they love? Directed by Mike Nichols (THE GRADUATE, BIRDCAGE, WORKING GIRL), CLOSER questions the nature of relationships and fidelity as it follows the tangled web created by Dan (Jude Law), Alice (Natalie Portman), Anna (Julia Roberts), and Larry (Clive Owen). Dan, a British writer of obituaries, and Alice, a young American stripper, meet in the film's opening scene when a London cab runs her down. Cut to a year later: Dan and Alice are now a couple, but he is suddenly smitten with Anna, a beautiful American photographer. In an ironic twist of fate, Anna meets Larry, a British doctor, and they are soon a couple, despite Dan's continuing obsession. But the entanglements don't end there, and ultimately, someone is sure to get hurt. The four players do justice to a script that is humorous, raw and disarmingly honest about adult
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 Discussion forum for this movie
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 Closer is powerful and disturbing stuff. It is not life-affirming, and it's not for those who want to leave a movie theater uplifted and convinced that fairy tale endings can happen. And this is most definitely not a date movie. But if you appreciate films that are more substance than style, that take challenges and don't follow formulas, and that feature Oscar-caliber performances, Closer is not to be missed.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
"Closer" is so bloodless that it feels like an act of arty dishonesty. Nichols and Marber seem to think they're serving up the raw goods of modern romance, but they're really just arranging its pickled innards on a pristine, chilly porcelain plate.--Stephanie Zacharek (Salon)
It had me emotionally involved and is a solid character study for those who like the specific genre. B--Lee Tistaert (Lee's Movie Info)
"Closer" is a serious adult drama with biting moments of humorous wit. Director Mike Nichols treats the material with the same sensibility that Todd Solondz brought to "Happiness." He sees his characters actions as being destructive, yet he adds a droll sense of humor to highlight their absurdity. For Dan, Alice, Anna and Larry, being destructive is just one logical step on the way towards attaining fulfillment.  --Bill King (Movie-Gurus.com)
It would take a bolder director than Nichols to realize that mid-way through Closer there is the distinct possibility that this foursome would be happiest (that is to say, for them, most miserable) if they all just climbed into bed together.  --Dan Callahan (CultureDose.net)
Closer then, is likely to leave most audiences sporadically engaged through its sharp, witty dialogue and restrained performances, but Closer's jaundiced view of contemporary relationships may leave audiences as disconnected and detached as the characters in the film... 8/10--Mel Valentin (Movie-Vault.com)
From the start, Closer makes no attempt to hide its unlikely plot and wholesale absurdity. Characters behave completely irrationally, uttering the worst dialogue imaginable. "Why won't you let me love you!?" "I love you and I need a piss." Who talks likethis!? No one. Not even British people.  --Christopher Null (FilmCritic.com)
Closer, in its premise, language and execution, is unwatchably and amateurishly crass. Like a snuff film for espresso drinkers. --Blake Snyder (MovieWeb)
“Closer” is not a movie that will have you walking out feeling romantic and good about life. It is meant to be a starting point to some potentially intense discussions with your loved ones. --Collin Souter (eFilmCritic.com)
Nichols is unflinching, and his “Closer” joins the ranks of “In the Company of Men,” “The Shape of Things,” and “Eyes Wide Shut” as a vicious, haunting, captivating study of the destructive power of the human heart. --David Cornelius (eFilmCritic.com)
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| Cast |
Natalie Portman
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones |
 | Jude Law
Artificial Intelligence: AI, Road to Perdition, The Aviator |
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 | Clive Owen
The Bourne Identity, King Arthur, Gosford Park |
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Mike Nichols’ Closer is the longest perfume commercial ever made. It is two hours of beautiful people saying pretentious, silly things.  --Lucas Stensland (eFilmCritic.com)
...those who want to be pushed and prodded by a film, who think that cinema can do more than provide momentary mindless diversion, would do well to seek it out.  --Peter Sobczynski (eFilmCritic.com)
You would have to search far and wide through the annals of film history to find a more complex, miscreant group of characters than those in "Closer," an uncommonly engrossing and romantically cynical drama about two men and two women who couple, uncouple and re-couple over the course of four years. A---Eric D. Snider (EricDSnider.com)
It's got great dialogue and good acting, but none of it ends up feeling totally satisfying. It teases us a lot, but there's no payoff. It's too cold to be moving, but not cold enough to be shocking.  --Kevin N. Laforest (Montreal Film Journal)
The kind of drama that some will find provocative and groundbreaking; I just find it mean spirited. 70/100--Jamie Gillies (Apollo Guide)
Much of the dialogue in "Closer," written by Patrick Marber and directed by Mike Nichols, is as pointed, cold and sharp as an icicle. Yet it melts in the mouths of the film's four stars.--Paul Clinton (CNN Showbiz)
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