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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), Music Video, Previews, English, Subtitled, French Dubbed & Subtitled
Set in London, England, good Samaritan Dan Wolf (Jude Law), a struggling writer, takes Alice Ayres (Natalie Portman), a shady young woman and part-time stripper, to the hospital when she''s hit by a car. They end up falling in love. One year later, Dan meets photographer Anna Cameron (Julie Roberts) and tries to pick her up, but she rebuffs him. In revenge, Dan sets Anna up for an embarrassing encounter with dermatologist Larry Bagley (Clive Owen), but the two end up seeing each other. Another year later, Dan and Anna begin an affair of their own, and relationships between the four collapse. Over the next year, all of them become obsessed with hurting each other and wreak some heavy emotional damage. Will any of them be strong enough to put this destructive sequence of events to a stop''
"Two thumbs way up." Ebert & Roeper
Editor's Note
Are humans meant to mate for life? What drives someone in a perfectly good relationship to cheat and risk losing the one that they love and that loves them? Is it possible to love more than one person at the same time? How well does anyone really know the one that they love? Directed by Mike Nichols (THE GRADUATE, BIRDCAGE, WORKING GIRL), CLOSER questions the nature of relationships and fidelity as it follows the tangled web created by Dan (Jude Law), Alice (Natalie Portman), Anna (Julia Roberts), and Larry (Clive Owen). Dan, a British writer of obituaries, and Alice, a young American stripper, meet in the film's opening scene when a London cab runs her down. Cut to a year later: Dan and Alice are now a couple, but he is suddenly smitten with Anna, a beautiful American photographer. In an ironic twist of fate, Anna meets Larry, a British doctor, and they are soon a couple, despite Dan's continuing obsession. But the entanglements don't end there, and ultimately, someone is sure to get hurt. The four players do justice to a script that is humorous, raw and disarmingly honest about adult relationships.
| Features | Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DTS Superbit (English), Dolby Surround Sound (French) | | Interactive Menus | | Music Video: "The Blower's Daughter" Performed By Damien Rice | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French | | Widescreen Presentation | | Music Video: The Blower's Daughter performed by Damien Rice | | Previews | | Audio: English Dolby Digital (5.1) Dts, Superbit, French Dolby Surround Sound |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 4/25/2006 |
| Running Time: 104 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2004 | | Catalog ID: 04847 | | UPC: 00043396048478 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: French | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (2005) | | | Clive Owen, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | | | Natalie Portman, Nominee, Best Supporting Actress | |
Golden Globe (2005) |  | Clive Owen, Winner, Best Supporting Actor | | Natalie Portman, Winner, Best Supporting Actress | | | Mike Nichols, Nominee, Best Director | |
British Academy Awards (2005) | | Clive Owen, Winner, Best Supporting Actor |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"The verbal intercourse that dominates that scene and every other in the film is vigorous, compulsive, sometimes painful and occasionally funny." p.E1USA Today
"All the actors do fine work, but Owen's quixotic and brooding quality is particularly effective here." 12/03/2004 p.8E Rolling Stone
"[T]he haunting, hypnotic CLOSER vibrates with eroticism, bruising laughs and dynamite performances from four attractive actors doing decidedly unattractive things." 12/09/2004 p.189 Entertainment Weekly
"The place, the costumes, the staging of sexual provocation and betrayal are refined studies in luxurious understatement." 12/10/2004 p.63-4 Film Comment
"[Portman is] the film's most enigmatic character..." 01/01/2005 p.72 Uncut
"[T]his is an engrossing, anti-romantic movie about that bloody fist of an organ, the human heart." 02/01/2005 p.99 Chicago Sun-Times
"They are all so very articulate, which is refreshing..." 12/03/2004 p.27 Sight and Sound
"[The performances] are strong and display a readiness to engage in the ugliness of the parts. Julia Roberts is refreshingly understated." 02/01/2005 p.45-7 Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "A faithful screen adaptation of Patrick Marber's play....It's witty and well performed..." 12/01/2007 p.85 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 8 of 10
Portman, in what has been called her first truly adult role (it's certainly nowhere close to Quee - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
What is unique about "Closer," making it seem right for these insincere times, is that the character - Roger Ebert
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