Natalie Portman in Closer (2004)

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Review

Relationships, as any therapist will tell you at a cost of $135 an hour, are hard. A couple, to stay together, must construct and adhere to a complex structure of honesty, half truths, and outright delusions. The two intersecting couples of Closer (2004), through no fault or merit of their own, manage to pin themselves into emotional corners. The only way out is to take apart the very system of beliefs that they have relied upon to sustain them, as individuals and in their pairings. Passion, rage, lust, tenderness, betrayal, acceptance, and ultimately love are the keys to a truth that is just as likely to imprison as it is to set free. Adapted for the screen from a play by Patrick Marber, Closer contains fireworks that—though largely internal—make for lingering special effects.