Has anybody seen Closer?

zybar · « **on:** 13 Jun 2005, 10:59 pm »

What did you think?

My friends and I are pretty evenly split into two camps:

1. The people who really liked it.
2. The people who hated it.

The ones who liked it thought the dialogue was excellent as was the character development. Although not terribly complex (it was easy to predict), there was a realness that made it easy to connect and care about the characters.

The ones who hated it thought it was slow, cumbersome, predictable, and wooden. They felt the characters weren't well developed and furthermore didn't give a hoot about them.

Usually you don't see such black and white camps (especially on something that was well reviewed).

BTW, I really did it enjoy it and recommend it to my friends.

George

Mathew_M · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 Jun 2005, 11:08 pm »

I disliked Closer. I only found Clive Owen's character the least bit interesting and even he felt like a stage play cut-out. I typically like Mike Nichols stuff too (well aside from Wolf and Regarding Henry). Two similar films he's done that I found to be much better are Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf and Carnal Knowledge. Maybe Closer would of been a better film if it were made in the 70's. A lot of it felt rather dated to me including the little cyber porn sequence...yawn.

Rich Carlson · « **Reply #2 on:** 14 Jun 2005, 12:42 am »

Sorry, George, put me (and my wife) in the "hated it" column. We pretty much agree with your description from the perspective of those who hated it. A few good lines and moments, but not nearly enough.

JoshK · « **Reply #3 on:** 14 Jun 2005, 12:47 am »

I liked it. So did my neighbor who is an artist and a movie lover.

bubba966 · « **Reply #4 on:** 14 Jun 2005, 04:58 am »

I'd have to go for at least 1.75...

Honestly I didn't care for it much. The dialog & such had been hyped up quite a bit. Not only did I feel it didn't live up to that hype, but it didn't seem very realistic at all to me (which was another thing that was hyped up about it).

I like Portman, and Owen is great. I wanted to like it. Just couldn't do it though...

Tyson · « **Reply #5 on:** 14 Jun 2005, 05:08 am »

Loved it. I thought is was brilliant.

Mathew_M · « **Reply #6 on:** 14 Jun 2005, 07:09 am »

Quote from: bubba966

The dialog & such had been hyped up quite a bit. Not only did I feel it didn't live up to that hype, but it didn't seem very realistic at all to me (which was another thing that was hyped up about it).

I agree. I didn't for once buy into any of the characters or their motivations. Everything was very scripted. The turning point was the cyber sex scene between Owen and Law. Nichols was getting some kicks out of having two grown men 'cybering' each other. Whoo-whatever, that's so 90's

Problem is that while that scene is played for laughs it's also a major plot point for leading into the aquarium scene and is the subtext for basically the entire film.

The female leads did nothing for me either. I've never thought much of Julia Roberts outside of her Pretty Woman persona. Natalie Portman still looks too young and innocent for such a part.