CLOSER

Last night I saw the movie Closer by Mike Nichols again. I normally watch it when I feel bad or have a heartache or something up that alley, but yesterday when I watched it I was in a quite harmonious state..

And something had changed. Me or the movie. (I guess we both know what is most likely)

Although I still love it dearly, I could suddenly see its flaws.
They are not many or huge, but I just suddenly realized:
Wow. That Jude Law sure is like a rollercoaster when it comes to acting. Sometimes good and sometimes really bad (one should always keep in mind that bad acting could also be the directors fault). Earlier he would be the one making me blush and fall in love again and think wow there are men like him out there (I know he plays a character, but anyway).
The movie also looked out of sync sometimes with lips and what they said, but that could just aswell be because I have a bad asian copy of the dvd.

I watched it with a girl who recently broke up with her boyfriend and we talked about the realisticness of it all, and I said I thought it was one of the most realistic lovestories I ever saw. It's exactly like that, I said. My friend said she found it to be less dramatic in real life. I am not so sure.

Before we put it on I was like oh, I envy you this feeling of seeing it for the first time (she had seen it before but couldnt remember), and afterwards I was like: Hmm.. This doesn't make me feel how I remember it. Perhaps it was me feeling like crap that was left out this time.

She thought the Jude Law character was mean and silly and I said I thought he was perfectly rational and realistic in his behaviour (except for the occational bad acting). It is the character of the other guy, Clive Owen, that pisses me off. Such a sleazy, sleazy fellow with a foul mouth. I don't get how Anna could fall for his crap, but I guess the act of falling for someone is a completely unrational thing anyway.



Ok, ok.. I might still really love it. Watched the trailer now and only want to see the whole thing again.

Some good quotes from the movie (MAJOR SPOILER WARNING):

Dan: I fell in love with her, Alice.
Alice: Oh, as if you had no choice? There's a moment, there's always a moment, "I can do this, I can give into this, or I can resist it", and I don't know when your moment was, but I bet you there was one.

Dan: You love her like a dog loves its owner.
Larry: And the owner loves the dog for so doing.
Dan: You'll hurt her. You'll never forgive her.
Larry: Of course I'll forgive her. I *have* forgiven her. Without forgiveness we're savages. You're drowning.

Alice: No one will ever love you as much as I do. Why isn't love enough?

Larry: You forget you're dealing with a clinical observer of the human carnival.
Anna: Am I, now?
Larry: Oh, yes.
Anna: You seem more like the cat that got the cream, you can stop licking yourself now.

Larry: You're seeing him now? Since when?
Anna: Since my opening last year.
[pause]
Anna: I'm disgusting.
Larry: You're phenomenal. You're so clever.

Larry: As dermatological conferences go, it was a riot.

Alice: How can one man be so endlessly disappointing?
Dan: That's my charm.

Anna: I'm sorry you're...
Larry: Don't say it! Don't you fucking say you're too good for me. I am, but don't say it.

Larry: [on a photography exhibit] What do you think?
Alice: It's a lie. It's a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully, and... all the glittering assholes who appreciate art say it's beautiful 'cause that's what they wanna see. But the people in the photos are sad, and alone... But the pictures make the world seem beautiful, so... the exhibition is reassuring which makes it a lie, and everyone loves a big fat lie.
Larry: I'm the big fat liar's boyfriend.
Alice: Bastard!

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.

Larry: So Anna tell me your bloke wrote a book. Any good?
Alice: Of course.
Larry: It's about you isn't it?
Alice: Some of me.
Larry: Oh? What did he leave out?
Alice: The truth.

Dan: You think love is simple. You think the heart is like a diagram.
Larry: Have you ever seen a human heart? It looks like a fist, wrapped in blood! Go fuck yourself! You writer! You liar!

Anna: Don't stop loving me. I can see it draining out of you. It's me, remember? It was a stupid thing to do and it meant nothing. If you love me enough, you'll forgive me.

Alice: Where is this love? I can't see it, I can't touch it. I can't feel it. I can hear it. I can hear some words, but I can't do anything with your easy words.

Larry: You don't know the first thing about love, because you don't understand compromise.

Dan: What's so great about the truth? Try lying for a change, it's the currency of the world.

Alice: Can I still see you?
[Dan stands silent]
Alice: Dan can I still see you? Answer me.
Dan: I can't see you. If I see you I'll never leave you.
Alice: What will you do if I find someone else?
Dan: Be jealous.

Dan: Look me in the eyes. Tell me you're not in love with me.
Anna: I'm not in love with you.
Dan: You just lied.

Some of the things they say might also seem quite banal like these (but they still make me smile because of the talents behind that know how to deliver them right):

Anna: I don't kiss strange men.
Dan: Neither do I.

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

Larry: I used to come here a million years ago, when it was a punk club. The stage was... Everything is a version of something else. Twenty years ago. How old were you?
Alice: Four.
Larry: Christ. When I was in flares, you were in nappies.
Alice: My nappies were flared.