beautiful people acting ugly

Just got back from seeing Closer at Pacifac. I ended up sitting in the fifth row. But it worked for the film in question.

Closer is what we call a film for adults. There is no way I would take a child to this film at all. There actually isn't much nudity at all for a film about love and adultury (only incidently, in the backgound at the strip club) nor is there a sex scene between any of the four leads. But the subject matter, and more importantly the dialogue is so frank and caustic, I was probably more uncomfortable than I would have been if they had taken of their clothes. Sample dialogue: "What's he taste like?" "He tastes like you but sweeter." "Thank you, thank you for honesty. Now fuck off and die, you miserable old slag!" Like I said, caustic.

There is no way I would take a girlfriend to this film for a date, unless we were prepared to sit down afterwards and carefully talk about what the film has to say, becuase this film is explosive. Yet is deals with ideas and emotions that are very, very real. Love can be the most painful thing in the world, but we keep looking for it. I've been there. I'm sure most of us have. And that's what makes the film so frightening and dangerous. We can identify.

But who really wants to admit this to themselves? The characters in this film are so incredibly cruel. hideous, deceptive, manipulative, selfish and confused about what love even means. But that's the point. So many of us in society are. We're given all these messages about what love is, but what do we really know? Natalie Portman's character asks, "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." That is perhaps the truest thing said in a film that is filled with characters who seem incapable of telling something like simple truth, and perhaps don't even believe such a thing exists. What the film seems to suggest is that truth can be as damaging as lies. Perhaps even more so. A frightening thought.

I also just want to add that Natalie Portman is a truly beautiful girl. I'd turn to the Dark Side for her any day.