Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3841 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-06-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Four extremely beautiful people do extremely horrible things to one another in Closer, Mike Nichols' pungent adaptation of Patrick Marber's play that easily marks the Oscar-winning director's best work in years. Anna (Julia Roberts) is a photographer who specializes in portraits of strangers; Dan (Jude Law) is an obituary writer struggling to become a novelist; Alice (Natalie Portman) is an American stripper freshly arrived in London after a bad relationship; and Larry (Clive Owen) is a dermatologist who finds love under the most unlikely of circumstances. When their paths cross it's a dizzying supernova of emotions, as Nichols and Marber adroitly construct various scenes out of their lives that pair them again and again in various permutations of passion, heartbreak, anger, sadness, vengeance, pleading, deception, and most importantly, brutal honesty. It's only until you're more than halfway through the movie that you'll have to ask yourself exactly why you are watching such a beautifully tragic tale, as Closer is basically the ickiest, grossest, most dysfunctional parts of all your past relationships strung together into one movie. Ultimately, it falls to the four actors to draw you deeper into the story; all succeed relatively, but it's Law and Owen whose characters will cut you to the quick. Law proves that yet again he's most adept at playing charming, amoral bastards with manipulative streaks, and Owen is nothing short of brilliant as the character most turned on by the energy inherent in destructive relationships--whether he's on the giving or receiving end. --Mark Englehart

Synopsis
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 relationships.

Customer Reviews

Another fantastic film to get negative press here...
Closer is a great movie - sophisticated, clever, intelligent, witty and brilliantly acted. I live Clive Owen in this - he's pompous, arrogant and ultimately brilliant. Natalie Portman does a great job too, and the scene in the strip club is worth the watch alone for any red blooded male. Jude Law also deserves credit for his portrayal of his character.

Each character has things in their closet which most people can relate to in one way or another. If you are looking for an ideal relationship rom-com this might not be your scene, but for a dark, truthful look at love -Closer is certainly one of the best.

It's a difficult film to describe, so I won't really bother trying - A film about the inter-woven relationships of four people who randomly meet in London which is cleverly portrayed and always keeps the audience guessing - highly recommended.

A Fantastic Study of Life and Love
I love this film and have seen it many times. To me it is a true depiction of life and love, most people end up compromising, a lot of us don't end up with the people we truly love and the character of Alice, despite being young and beautiful and at times childlike-she is hard done by and forever in the shadow of the older and equally beautiful Anna.

From the opera soundtrack to the beauty of the main leads (although Jude Law is pretty annoying rather than pretty) this is a fantastically absorbing film and unusual in that it has a small cast and each scene is set out like a play. Although how Julia Roberts could fancy Jude Law over Clive Owen will puzzle me for a long long time!

Only one person acting
5 stars for Natalie Portman's attempts to actually do something with the script, but overall a dreadful film. The play it was based on may have been better, but the script and story are sterile and predictable. The four characters just change places and say the same things to each other, over and over again. The lines are delivered without any feeling (apart from Natalie Portman as mentioned) and without any sense that they are doing more than just reading. If there was a point, it actually got lost by repetition because you just stop listening or caring.