day 6 - Closer

OK film fans, this has been a rough week for my little blog. It's difficult to proselytize on behalf of the cult of the silver screen due to recent technical difficulties, i.e. my job sucking up time and energy better devoted to film. So once again it looks like tonight's post will be another short jab to the solar plexus, something quick for you to remember.

Since we've hit a couple of comedies I feel like it's time for a detour. My choice tonight is a film sure to be revisited at a later date as part of another conversation, but I caught a bit of it on IFC and couldn't resist the urge to mention one of my favorite films of the Aughts. Yeah, that sounds crappy to me too but I don't know what else to call this last decade.

Anyway, Closer is a fantastic film converted from a play by the prolific (he's had a landmark film in 3 consecutive decades and a bunch of commercial success, look him up!) Mike Nichols. It tells the story of four individuals whose love lives overlap each allowing a dissection of relationships and the lies we tell our significant others and ourselves. It begins with Dan having his picture taken by Anna (Jude Law and Julia Roberts) for his new book. A spark surfaces between them during the shoot but is interrupted by the arrival of Dan's girlfriend Alice (Natalie Portman). She's able to easily detect the false front projected from both parties none to subtly makes her feelings know to Anna.

Things grow exponentially more complicated when Dan, who thinks he's paying Anna back for her spurning, sends a chat room Lothario to meet her at an aquarium she likes to visit. Larry (Clive Owen) is not exactly what Dan pictures and ends up quite easily charming Anna. The film deftly exposes the perceptions the characters have of each other and themselves. We the audience realize most of what we see is initially is either not the whole truth or a complete lie. The title says it all, without looking closer at yourself and the person you're with your perception of things will always be misguided.

When I initially saw this film I loved it's exploration of the dynamics of intimate relationships. It takes artistic liberties to be sure, but the underlying themes are universal. At the forefront is the simple realization that you may never really know the person you love as well as you think you do. Unfortunately, I didn't take the film's message to heart. Over the course of the year following my first viewing of this film my own decade long relationship suffered from revelations and upheavals that I would never have thought possible. Looking back now, the only thing more surprising than the truths I discovered about our relationship was how poorly I handled it over the following years and the truths I discovered about myself. In short, not only did I not know her as well as I thought I did I didn't know myself that well either.

Our closing clip is a favorite of mine that once again exposes film directors for the self revealing prestidigitators they all are. The curtain gets pulled back at the 2:53 mark.