Closer

Monday, August 01, 2005 | 12:51 pm

Myself and my beloved watched Closer this past weekend, a movie recently mentioned on Cheese Man's blog. Really enjoyed it &mdash intelligent adult entertainment, an increasingly rare commodity.

The film had some weaknesses, but avoided two of the biggest pitfalls of this genre by:

  • Not having actors burst into screaming histrionics every 5 minutes in order to show they were upset.
  • Having a movie almost universally about infidelity, including many scenes about sex acts, but never really showing a sex scene. Thus keeping you firmly based in the emotional, rather than distracting you with the physical.
Mike Nichols (Dir.) maintains many European sensibilities.

From those who have seen it, I have a question for you: was there a character you identified/sympathizied with more than the others? Everyone seemed fallibly human in this movie, so I think the person you identify with wil be a very individual choice.

Trivia A: Did everyone catch the name on Natalie Portman's passport at the end?
Trivia B: There are only 6 speaking parts in the movie. Four principal actors, and 2 bit-parts. Can you name the two bit parts? (this is not intended as an test of your use of IMDB by the way ;)

6 Comments:

At 2/8/05 1:30 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've been stuck on this. I can't honestly identify with any of the people in this movie. Each of them does several things I could never imagine doing in real life.

The closest I can come is telling you which is the anti-me. That would be Natalie Portman's character. But it isn't that I didn't symphathize with her. Even though she is the furthest from who I think I am, I probably felt the most for her and her situation. That's the best I can do.

Trivia A: Yes. I was looking for that as soon as they asked her for it. Pretty much confirmed my suspicions.

Trivia B: Hmm. I would guess probably a waiter at the restaurant, and maybe a receptionist or something at the new doctor's office. Now I'm off to IMDB to see how wrong I was about that.

 
At 2/8/05 1:31 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Holy poo! You gave us a clue to B in A, and I still missed the bastard.

 
At 2/8/05 1:48 pm, Blogger Aussie-Askew said...

I kind of agree that Natalie Portman's character seems to garner the most sympathy, probably because she declared herself as in love, and was the first domino to fall victim to infidelity.

Mind you, the passport scene seems to be their in order to let you know that she has a past also.

My beloved could not sympathise with her at all, because she thought she was weak when the cheating was revealed. Lesson for me there! ;)

 
At 3/8/05 1:43 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I absolutely adored that movie. I really loved the structure and scene cuts. It's kind of odd to say it was refreshing as it springs from Nichols stage background but 'back to basics' is just what we need sometimes...

...I guess it would have to be Clive Owen for me...

A: Yup
B: Thought I could. Apparently not!

 
At 3/8/05 8:20 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

now... keeping in mind i am somewhat in love, and quite in lust, with Clive Owen he TOTALLY creeped me out in this movie.

i mean, the first time we meet him, he's having cybersex! way to introduce a character.

fabulous. i've gotta see that movie again.

 
At 8/8/05 1:00 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was left feeling slighlty soiled at the end of this one and found it difficult to like any of the characters in it. The Natalie Portman character was probably the most sympathetic but that's not saying much in this field.

 

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