"Closer" is a romantic drama based on the play by Patric Marber. It's a tale of two London couples and their desire, jealousy, guilt and betrayal.

The film opens with Dan (Jude Law) a London obituary writer and an aspiring novelist, rescuing pink haired Alice (Natalie Portman) who is newly arrived in London from New York and gets hit by a taxi. Dan takes her to the hospital where her injuries were treated while they flirted. He learns that she was a stripper in New York before coming to London. Both of them gets romantically involved and start to live together.

A year later Dan has written his first novel about the life experiences of Alice. He goes to a photographer Anna (Julia Roberts) to take his photograph for the book jacket. Dan is very much sexually attracted to Anna, an elegant divorcee. Dan flirts with Anna and she allows him to kiss her. Alice shows up and she wants her picture taken. She confronts Anna about the flirtation. Anna understands the jealous situation and decides to back off and rebuffs Dan.

Larry (Clive Owen) a frustrated dermatologist links up with a woman through the Internet sex chat room who was actually Dan pretending to be Anna who exchanged salacious sweet talk with Larry. Later Larry meets the real, unsuspecting Anna at a London Aquarium and the two hit it off on the first sight. Larry and Anna wind up together. A few months later the couples cross paths at an exhibition of Anna's photographs which sets in motion a series of guilty flirtations, deceptive betrayals and painful separations. 

Director Mike Nichols, well known for his theatrical features, successfully spins a tale of sexual relationships. He cleverly portray the erotic fears and pain of loving and longing. Even though his characters are strangers to one another, in one way or another he makes them all longing for each other as if they were known for years. Dan, Alice, Anna and Larry, all of them slickly attractive people, goes through sexual entanglements with great capacity for betrayals without considering the consequences.

This is one of the best theatrical features Nichols has ever made. It is a well written and powerfully acted tale of love and betrayal. The high voltage cast including Law, Portman, Roberts and Owen present a dynamic performance. They have all enacted the human capacity for betrayal breathtakingly. When the mutual attraction kicks in between them, they have no inhibition to proclaim that all is fair in sex and betrayal. It is a story of beautiful people and their selfish sex lives and glossy infidelity filled with oozing immorality. Even though it lacks reality, from an entertainment point of view, it is a beautifully structured, well acted movie with great laughs.

We rate this movie Good.