Closer (2004)

MIMDB score: 7.1
Current IMDB score: 7.3
Director: Mike Nichols
Main Actors you care about: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen

Disclaimer: This is not a wholesome movie and therefore will not be a wholesome review.

Why I liked it:
This movie, along with a few other things, opened me up to the idea that there are wolves and there are sheep when it comes to relationships.  This movie is the world of the wolves.  As this movie shows wolves can't really control themselves.  Some can in Natalie Portman's case but most can't like in the other three main characters' cases.

If you are wolf I'm sorry.  I think you are more likely to have a life full of pain.  People can't help that they are wolves or sheep though so good luck with whatever you are.  I really don't know though how you could want to live in a world like Closer if given a choice.  These people treat each other so poorly it's absurd.  By the end of it I want to turn it off and not have to think about this world.  It's important though to see things differently than my own experience. Unfortunately this is probably more like life than what I believe life is and you have to be prepared for it.

What stands out: Natalie Portman is seductive in this movie.  That's the wolf in her.  I really liked Natalie Portman in this movie as well as anything she did before Black Swan.  After Black Swan it's like she was just taking jobs to pay the bills.  Hopefully that changes soon.

What I Would Change (if anything): I think Julia Roberts is a bad casting choice.  She didn't seem to fit I don't think.  All the rest played there part but I don't think she did that well.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:  "And so it is. Just like you said it would be."  I love the ending and beginning scenes. Damien Rice's song is perfect. It reminds me of a quote from What Dreams May Come.  “It’s just that when everybody’s dancing I feel like … I’m all alone … in a sea of faces.”

Dan: "This will hurt" . . . . Alice: "How? How does it work? How do you do this to someone?" Agreed.  Answer that question well and I'll give you a bajillion dollars.  How do you cheat on people?  It blows my mind every time I see it in movies and books or hear about it in real life.  How can anyone do that to someone they are suppose to be in total love with?

These are the reasons that google gave me.  The person they are cheating on is abusive and the cheater doesn't want to deal with more abuse, they are married and don't want to lose half of their stuff and/or kids, or having a big ego and needing people to love them outside of just there significant other.  I'll address all three of these.  Abusive: You are picking short term happiness over long term happiness.  If the person is abusive then fix that first, if it can't be fixed, leave before cheating.  You don't even need someone to cheat on to get out of that relationship.  If you get caught cheating think about about how much more abusive they would be than just leaving.  Marriage: I don't know, I can't comment too much on this as I'm not married.  I'd say stuff are just things.  If you can't do without material things you have right now then you need to re-evaluate your life.  Things are mostly meaningless.  Losing your kids though?  That can be really hard.  I don't know what to say in that situation.  Don't have kids if you have a wandering eye I guess.  That doesn't really help though as you can't control your feelings ten years down the road.  You just have to believe in commitment and your choice you have made of marrying that person.  Wait longer to get married?  That might be an understandable reason to cheat but it's still not a good reason because you should still not cheat.  You should wait until you are for sure you want to leave your spouse and eventually do that before cheating.  If you aren't a piece of shit you should still get to see your child(ren).  Your children can turn out fine even when you get divorced.  Cheating and then having your spouse hate you the rest of life might actually make the kids not fine.  Ego: This is not a good reason at all.  Learn to like yourself for other reasons than how many people you can have sex with in a given day. Sex is not everything in life.

Maybe it's just the sheep in me but I will never understand why cheating is acceptable.  Cheating means you don't care about the person.  It means you care less about the other person and more about your own selfish desires.  It's not like sheep don't have the same urge or same opportunity.  I don't want to hear that argument.  Sheep do have the same urge and opportunity but most sheep are able to control there actions.  Alice: "Oh, as if you had no choice? There's a moment, there's always a moment, 'I can do this, I can give into this, or I can resist it', and I don't know when your moment was, but I bet you there was one".  Most wolves give in and that makes them weak even though sheep are considered weak.  Maybe the only difference in a sheep and a wolf is a sheep can control their actions whereas a wolf weakly says he or she cannot.

I'm not talking about feelings here, You can't control feelings.  You can control actions for the most part.  Nobody accidentally has sex.  Maybe on super mind altering drugs but I don't really count that. You choose to be on a drug that could potentially lead to you cheating if you want to get technical.   The majority of the time it's a choice.  Love is not really a choice.  It's fine that you love someone else more than your current lover because you didn't have control over that really.  Break up with your current lover before having sex with the new one.  I'm over-simplifying but really I'm not.  As stated in a previous post this advice is a waste of Blogger.com's data because people will cheat if they want to no matter of how much anyone explains to them not to.

Larry: "You're leaving me because you believe you don't deserve happiness but you do Anna."  I never noticed this quote before.  It's very similar to the Perks of Being a Wallflower quote.  Probably because in this movie it's odd because he isn't treating her very well considering he admits to soliciting a prostitute right before this line is delivered.  I've gone through this idea enough in the Perk's post though. I won't dwell on this much here.

(New Section)
Things I still don't understand: Why did Natalie Portman tell her real name to Clive Owen and not to Jude Law?  She loved Jude Law more right?  She said she did and it looked like it?  She kind of leaves England after that relationship so maybe she just wanted to have an adventure in England?  Maybe the movie is trying to say love is just an illusion?

Similar Movies/TV Shows: I've never come across a movie that gave me the same type of awful feeling about relationships and people.  Maybe Requiem for a Dream?  I don't really understand the decisions made in that movie either so that's a possibility.  Oh Anna Karenina.  That shows the life of a wolf and a sheep.

"Side" note:
Natalie Portman was nude in her club scene with Clive Owen originally.  She talked the director out of it as not needed.  I agree, nudity isn't overly needed in movies ever.  For instance had she been nude in that scene it wouldn't have added anything to the plot of the movie.  It was just as good without it.  There are some exceptions but normally it's a cheap way to get people to like the movie more.  I respected her for it.  Later though she was nude in Darjeeling Limited (excuse me, Hotel Chevalier) which her character could have not been in at all and been just the same movie.  Why did she try so hard to not be nude in a movie that was saying a lot more like Closer than a ironic comedy movie like Darjeeling Limited?  I don't really know.

The park Alice and Dan go to in the beginning of the movie is an actual park.  They do have a memorial to ordinary people that died saving others.  It's called Postman's Park and is in London if you are ever there.  I'm sure it's a fantastic place to be.  Here is a list of all the people at the memorial.