Closer

I read reviews of the movies I see. Sometimes before, often afterwards. I might do it to confirm my own tastes and judgment. I know that I also do it because I am interested in criticism. A movie doesn’t just last the two hours you spend with it in the theater. When the lights come up, I feel as if I need to say something. And if the words don’t come, the movie was either especially provocative (Dogville) or just lousy. But not just bad, disappointingly so because it had enough aspiration to keep me from an outright condemnation. And I enjoy watching how others sort through these same moments. Pop culture is less the shared memories of movies, music and television than our collective response to them.

Last night I was educated by the group of conflicted instructors in “Closer” -- which just now I realize I have no idea how to pronounce. Is the title a drawing close or an abrupt end? I spent the first half of the movie thinking, “Oh, so that’s how men and women interact with each other” and the latter half frustrated that they couldn’t act smarter, better, or more kindly towards each other. The film explores how cruelty comes as a response to our own understanding of our mistakes. We realize our behavior doesn’t make sense and we lash out, pinning the blame on someone else. And the movie resolves nothing. Suitably so. But neither does it reach towards epic tragedy. I remember the Swedish film, “Faithless”, a story of adultery that left imprints on its characters that spanned a lifetime. The characters in “Closer” will continue in new settings and with new partners but may well live out the same story once again.

That’s why I can’t finally say whether the film succeeds, because it captures a string of moments but doesn’t use the focus of film to frame them convincingly. Natalie Portman’s character sheds a tear as she possesses the sidewalk of a new city, and it is supposed to show the price her show of seductive confidence costs her. Simultaneously her lover in London realizes as he revisits the place where they met that he may not have really known her at all. In the end he possesses nothing of her, and possession is the motivation of all the characters in the film. Even his memories are left subject. There isn’t irony in this gesture. “Closer” is not a plot driven thriller where an ending transforms what came before. The substance of this movie is the desperate ways we treat others just to tolerate ourselves. And sadly I think too many of us realize that already.