"Closer" follows four people in London over the course of several years. Dan (Jude Law) is an obituary writer who falls for former exotic dancer Alice (Natalie Portman). After Dan publishes a novel based loosely on Alice's life he falls for a photographer named Anna (Julia Roberts). When Anna declines to see him after making out with him, Dan goes on to a nasty web site, poses as Anna and has a spicy chat with a doctor named Larry (Clive Owen). He tells Larry that he (meaning Anna) will meet him tomoroow at the aquarium, not knowing that she really will be there. Anna and Larry fall in love, for a little while, but soon things start going bad for all four people.

"Closer" is about love, trust, guilt, infidelity and, most importantly, sex. The film contains a lot of graphic language and I mean a lot. When I screened the film, the audience was largely made up of middle-aged and elderly women, basically people my mother and grandmother's ages. It was more than a little embarassing to sit there and here these words being broadcast in perfect digital sound with these women around. They didn't seem to mind it, as nobody walked out, but I did think about what their reactions to the film might be, especially since I couldn't get a firm hold on what I thought.

The acting was better than average. Law has been a bit overexposed recently and this definitely was not my favorite film with him, but Portman and Owen were both close to excellent. The problem that all of the actors had to overcome was how bad they were. Dan was a fickle philanderer, Anna was an all too willing cheat, Larry was a pathetic, sex-addicted master manipulator and Alice, the character with the least amount of personal flaws, was a stripper. Last week's movie, "In Good Company," gave audiences all nice characters that all found ways to overcome their flaws and become better people. The characters in "Closer" may have learned their lessons by the end of the film but they also may just be delaying the inevitable, which is more affairs, deception and guilt.

Nichols did a good job transferring the play to the screen. He had very concrete visual ideas and they were all well expressed. As sure an eye as he has, this isn't a film that is going to net any directorial awards. "Closer" is basically an art-house movie with an all star cast and if I'm going to recommend an art house movie about imperfect people in imperfect relationships, I'm going to recommend the flawless "Sideways." I'm not sure who the audience for "Closer" is supposed to be, but it can't be a very large part of the population. This film has a pretty bleak take on love and the subject matter is certainly the film's undoing.

* 1/2

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