Closer

I just finished watching this movie (though I need to stop raiding Stephie's collection), and I was reminded that it is possibly the single most intriguing movie I've ever seen. So I decided to try to put some of it to words, rather than just spouting out a bunch of "favourite moments."

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether or not any of the characters have any redeeming qualities to them. Dan is a pathetic person, unable to be happy with what he has. Anna is a coward, unwilling to allow anyone to think ill of her. Alice is transient, bolting at the first sign of trouble. Larry is petty and vengeful, and he uses others to get his revenge.

Out of all of them I think I prefer Larry; his faults come up as a result of the actions of others. He hurts Anna and Dan because of what they did to him. I've heard some argument that Larry is just as bad as Anna because he too slept with someone else (a prostitute on his business trip). This just isn't true. He was upfront and honest about his infidelity, whereas Anna let hers continue for a year before she brought it up. The difference is that she lied about it and he didn't. This redeems him and villifies her. When Larry offers the exchange of sex for signing the divorce papers, it is plain that he has something else on his mind. He knows that Anna will go along with it because she can't let him hate her, and he knows that Dan will not be able to tolerate it. He is cruel to Dan in the office scene because Dan has a year of deception to live down and all he wants is more.

Dan is one of the more complex characters in the film. He is a child, essentially who does not know how to function on a normal social plane. He is a hedonistic opportunist, not to mention selfish beyond reproach. He is living with Alice, but he kisses Anna at their first meeting. He knows that Larry and Alice slept together but he doesn't just tell Alice that he knows, he forces it out of her in a slimy (and obvious) way which only drives a wedge between them. And in the end, he hits her. Though Larry might be the more testosterone driven of the par, he's never hit Anna, not even after all she put him through. Alice spits in Dan's face and calls him a fucker and that's all it took. Dan is the least redeemable of the four characters.

Anna is a close second though. While Dan actively screws things up, Anna does so by being passive. She decieves Larry for a year because she's frightened of telling him about "Cupid." She even marries him rather than tell him the truth. And when Larry makes his proposition, she cannot bring herself to be cold towards him. She wants to leave him (if she didn't, she wouldn't have had the divorce papers drawn up), but she needs it to be on good terms. So much so that she'll sleep with him so that they can smile as they part, thus screwing up her relationship with Dan.

Alice would have been my favourite character if it hadn't been for the sloppy way she deals with the ending of a relationship. She doesn't even attempt to tie up loose ends, preferring rather to fly across the ocean. She is always running from people, from herself. That said, she is one of the more honest people in the film. She seems to have an understanding of the darker side of human nature, evident in her critique of Anna's exhibit and her fight with Dan. When she says "I've been you," she means that she has been in Dan's shoes. She's cheated in the past and tried to patch things up with easy words. Easy words don't work, especially not in this film which is why she runs. To Alice it's easier to leave the rope frayed at the end.

I love that this film is based on a play. The script is just dazzling. So many classic lines and images. The dialogue is so bruising, so sharp. The fellow says that truth is beauty, and beauty truth, but that's not necessarily so in this case. Well, it could be seen that way. But this truth has been preceded by so many lies and falsehood that it is not truth for the sake of truth, but pointed truth, aimed to hurt. Dan does not simply tell Alice that he knows she slept with Larry because he wants to hurt her. Larry does not want to know what happened between Dan and Anna, he wants Anna to say it so she'll hurt. I love some of the subtleties in the script. It was refreshing to see a movie set in london where they don't show Big Ben, or the London bridge, or (shudder) the "Welcome to London" sign. It was just enough for Alice to ask to use the loo, or Larry to say that the invoice was in the post.

It should be known that I'm not a big fan of Mike Nichols as a director. I don't think I can forgive him for butchering Catch-22, but he did an alright job. It was an excellent choice to have Damien Rice's "The Blower's Daughter" bookend the film. At first it seems like a love song, but by the end it seems to be about obsession rather than love. Ironically, the last line of the song is "I can't take my mind off of you, until I find somebody new." It was great too that Clive Owen was in the original stage version too.

All that being said, here (as predicted) are my "favourite moments."

Larry: Have you ever seen a human heart? It looks like a fist, wrapped in blood!

Larry: Is he good?
Anna: Yes.
Larry: Better than me?
Anna: Different.
Larry: Better?
Anna: Gentler.
Larry: What does that mean?
Anna: You know what it means.
Larry: Tell me!
Anna: No.
Larry: I treat you like a whore?
Anna: Sometimes.
Larry: Why would that be?

Alice: I'm not a whore.
Larry: I wouldn't pay.

Alice: So you're Anna's boyfriend.
Larry: A princess can kiss a toad.
Alice: Frog.
Larry: Toad.
Alice: Frog.
Larry: Toad. Frog. Lobster. They're all the same.

Dan: If you love her you'll let her go so she can be happy.
Larry: She doesn't want to be happy.
Dan: Everybody wants to be happy.
Larry: Depressives don't. They want to be unhappy to confirm they're depressed. If they were happy they couldn't be depressed anymore. They'd have to go out into the world and live. Which can be depressing.

Alice: Don't eat fish.
Dan: Why not?
Alice: Fish piss in the sea.
Dan: So do children.
Alice: Don't eat children either.

Anna: Why is the sex so important?
Larry: Because I'm a fucking caveman!

Larry: I'll pay you.
Alice: I don't need your money.
Larry: You have my money.
Alice: Thank you.
Larry: "Thank you, thank you." Is that a rule?
Alice: Just being polite.

Alice: Look at your little eyes.
Dan: I can't see my little eyes.

Larry: Are you dressed because you thought I'd hit you? Who do you think I am?
Anna: I've been hit before.
Larry: Not by me!