12/4/2004
Hello Again,
It has been much too long since I have last made my voice heard.
I have been very sick and still am coughing up unrecognizable chunks.
Too much information, I know, but bear with me.
I will return to a more regular posting immediately, but my
disappearance, to me, seems intolerable. For
this I apologize to all my readers, if there are any left.
All new readers… um… hi?
Today I wanted to comment on a movie I just watched last night by the
name of “Closer” featuring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, and Natalie Portman.
Deranged is the first word that comes to mind as I reconsider the twisted
love triangle and the mangling of emotions that take place deep within the
subtext of the movie. The characters deal with subconscious trauma that any
psychiatrist would be proud to charge hundreds of dollars for which to listen.
Since Jude
Law cannot hold the screen for himself (as proved by his latest failure “Alfie”)
producers were forced to surround him with other big name celebrities such as
Julia Roberts (the attention grabber) and Natalie Portman (the “teenage boy
bathroom companion”). I will give
this to Law, he is a very talented actor. He
just lacks that “Leading Man” quality that so few stars can possess
nowadays. Tom Hanks, Jack
Nicholson, and DeNiro (just to name a few) all command respect and attention,
but more so, they do it with something as simple as look, a hand movement, a
twitch, an eyebrow. Law lacks this
and it is apparent, but I will give him credit for being one of the best
supportive actors of our time. I
believe he makes it easier for the big names to expand and that he gives them so
much more to work with when on a project.
Julia
Roberts had an explosive performance for a mediocre role in my opinion.
She plays a shattered wife who cannot decide whether or not she deserves
a happy life. She flops back and
forth between a semi-failed marriage and an affair with Law’s character.
Roberts did an excellent job in showing the inner struggle… the
contempt for her ex, but need to be accepted by someone, if not Law’s
character.
In today’s
society, I find it difficult to entertain that the writer had primarily
envisioned Portman’s character as a stripper, but I will acquiesce any more
crude statements because I believe it had been MADE essential to the storyline.
I believe this film definitely deserved its R rating from the constant
talk about sex and debauchery, not to mention the multiple strip club scenes.
However, I also believe that Portman played her character with extreme
concentration and effort. At first,
it seemed a raunchier version of the Naboo Queen, but her robotic nature
justified itself when seem within the strip club.
It was a defense, necessary within the confines of the club, which
carried out into her real life. The
only sparks of life the audience could see took place when Portman had her final
bedroom scene with Law. This is
when she let her “true” self come out and I believe she truly showed this to
us before…well, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but if you must see the
movie for whatever reason, make sure you aren’t the one paying for it.
Dream
