Closer to the heart

Just got back from seeing the movie Closer at City Cinema, (Roger Ebert's review). It was a good movie, very well-written (based on a play), but it was the kind of movie that left you feeling like the world was an awful place. Because the world of this movie was awful at its core, devoid of anything positive or good. The characters are all seeking love, but what they are really seeking is attraction. The two male characters, played by Jude Law and Clive Owen, are the ones with the most three-dimensional characters. The movie is basically a clash between the two of them, each trying to be desired by the two women at once.

The movie starts off like any typical romantic comedy, with Dan (Law), a failed novelist who writes obituaries meeting eyes with Alice (Portman) on the street, and her being so distracted that she gets hit by a taxi. They have their first conversation in the hospital waiting room, where Portman gives the first hint at her mysteriousness and round-about way of answering questions. (No, this isn't Garden State, but a distorted and twisted, possibly evil version of the same character.) Here's where I have to admit to being naturally sympathetic to Portman's character because of the actress who plays her's voice which still gets me every time...

At this point the relationship between Dan and Alice takes on a familiar tone.. he becomes obsessed with her, uses her as the main character for his first published novel, they are together for three years. And then he starts to feel like she needs him, that she is too young, and too much molded by his own personality that he doesn't know which part is really 'her'.

It's at this point that we meet the other female character in the movie (there are only about 7 people on screen in the entire movie, and we're almost entirely stuck with the four main characters.) Now, I don't want to ruin the best bits of the movie, but I do find it fascinating how much the writer was able to drain love of its positivity and present it as a weapon one can use to hurt other people, and if you're not as experienced a manipulator, yourself. (as happens to one of the characters in the end who gets in over his head)

Now, this is certainly more interesting than your typical RomCom (thanks, mark). But I got the sneaking suspicion that this kind of heartless manipulation is old hat in the world of soap operas. The writer just took that material, applied a skilled pen to it, and turned it into a play that eventually became this film. A movie that introduced the naturally more cynical younger movie-going set to the trials of baseless relationships entered into more for spite than for hope of happiness that have been going on in soap operas for decades.

The difference between this and most soap operas, however, is that the story ends in a very definite way, and the ones who weren't really prepared for the game of manipulation are left as they were, and the true experts at cold-heartedness find each other, as well.
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