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When you believe in love at first sight, you never stop looking

"Closer", film

Posted in Arts and culture on Monday, March 14, 2005

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When the physiological material of the imprecise 21st Century men-women relationships will be studied, “filmography” will become „bibliography”. "Closer", Mike Nichols’s last film, will weigh heavily. Closer is inexplicably translated in Romanian as “The Temptation”, although nobody is tempting anybody in this movie. But then again, Closer is just as enigmatic of a title for a film which, before being made into a movie, was a very successful play.

Closer speaks loads about fragility and inconsistency, about unhappiness and loss of direction, but also about the way we can emerge from the pressing ambiguity of our twisted relationships. Closer says that our relationship with someone else is directly determined by the relationship with our own selves, and that you have two chances to successfully come out of the “unbearable lightness of being”. To see exactly how, grab “Sapte Seri”, and see where it’s playing.

Look at it as an overview of how people love nowadays, in case you don’t have a clue or in case you’ve forgotten. If you happen to know and remember it well, just as I suspect, I bet you have some serious scars on your heart. This movie will then be a confirmation of what you already knew. A sad one, it’s true, but, hey! people prefer to be right rather than be happy, would you say? When you come out of the theatre, go have a drink in an obscure enough place where people cannot really spot you staring into space, while your heart weighs heavy. „I can’t get my eyes off you... I can’t get my eyes off of you...” will ring in your ears. That’s Damien Rice for you, a never-really-heard-of-in-Romania Irish singer, who spent his younger years fishing, painting, singing and that’s it. He is the memorable musical choice of the film.

His music, especially the song called „The Blower’s Daughter”, is subtle and strong, sounding like an echo coming from deep down within you; it holds a lot of emotion. The voice is almost mourning, following the cold guitar notes, the cello, and then, suddenly, the voice stands alone saying „I can’t get my eyes off you...I can’t get my eyes off of you...” This movie will haunt you, and you know what? It’s good that it does.

The place where you’re having the drink has to be sufficiently lit, also. You need to see the people come and go, especially so that you can exercise contemplating two certain scenes in the movie. The first and last scenes in Closer go something like this – on a street, the bustle of a busy metropole floods the camera. Out of the rush hour human traffic on this London street, out comes a girl. Approximately 2 hours later on our watch, but 4 years later in the film, the same girl gets lost among the people of a New York sidewalk. The first scene is made with her provocative walk, her West Village clothes, and a funky reddish hairstyle. She’s sexy as a striptease dancer (that’s what she is, actually), she’s a colourful presence, a declaration of independence, yet she’s anonymous. She walks through people who do not give her the time of day. A taxi driver does not give her the time of day either, as he doesn’t even notice her, but hits her, while our masculine hero watches in disbelief. The male in question is a writer lacking talent who writes obituaries, a mediocre man played by Jude Law. The action starts with this accident on the pedestrian crossing, and the two other substantial roles are Julia Roberts and Clive Owen – phenomenal in his part. In the last scene, we see her on a New York street. She’s dressed plainly: jeans and a white shirt, and her hair is long and wavy. Nothing striking, everything is rather modest. But this time she causes a commotion – men turn around and look as if struck by lightening, with awe written all over their faces. She has an irresistible aura. In between these two scenes, the movie touches on intimacy and all that it involves: emotion, deception, failure, fulfilment.

The story is about two couples and a string of infidelities that seem to never come to an end. Break-ups, make-ups, hopes, disappointments, all generated by an omnipresent unrest that senselessly agitates the souls. All characters are dominated by the conscious notion of imperfection, and by the consuming conviction that they are all free. The casting is of 4-star quality, but I think Natalie Portman, the girl the movie starts and ends with, shines the brightest. Her part is a huge challenge. She is the one who lies from the start, she is the lightest spirited, she strips in bars, flirting is part of her emotional fabric… but she is the one who’s actually pure and innocent, powerful to follow her love through and powerful to abandon it when her lover fails her. Mike Nichols knows so much about men and women that ever single scene carries with it an overwhelmingly real quality.
Feelings do not stand the test of time – that’s common knowledge. But feelings do not stand the test of truth, either – this is what this movie says. Sadness, like any other feeling, does not stand the trials of life, either; when you reach this conclusion, ask for the bill and finish your drink. It’s time you go home.

This movie is a must see, at least for three categories of people: for Julia Roberts’s fans, for Jude Law’s fans, and for those interested in the dynamic of the sexes in our times. The film fans are automatically included in any cinematic recommendation, and the Mike Nichols’s art connoisseurs are sure to not have missed this multi nominated film. And so, I wonder if there is anyone out there who might not be interested in watching Closer.


Click here for theatres playing “Closer”

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