Based on the hugely acclaimed Patrick Marber play which has become the toast of the West End, Closer charts the love lives of four London based protagonists - two men and two women - who find that they are inexorably linked. Obituary writer Dan (Jude Law) and stripper Alice (Natalie Portman) meet at a busy city intersection and after an accident get talking. Later we learn that they've gotten into a relationship and Dan's career as a serious writer has begun to gather pace. This brings him into the orbit of American photographer Anna (Julia Roberts), whom Dan finds himself very attracted to, even though she rebukes his initial advances. Dan's sexually mischievous nature is directly responsible for Anna meeting Larry (Clive Owen), a lonely dermatologist who has had his fair share of sour experiences in the game of love.
The brutality of emotional intimacy may be one of the touchstones of Patrick Marber's play - he also wrote the screenplay - but there's a distance in Closer between the characters, their actions and the audience that is impossible to bridge. Unsympathetic and cold, the quartet isn't helped by the wilfully disjointed nature of the screenplay or Nichols' aloof, rather non-committal direction. It's the actors who suffer most in this vague, staged environment, with only Owen and to a lesser extent Portman emerging with reputations enhanced. Still, it's not bad news for everyone: with a couple of his songs used in the movie, Damien Rice should see sales going through the roof.