Movie · 2004 · Drama, Romance · 1h 44m · R · English
Curator score: 4.2/10 (658.2K ratings)
If you believe in love at first sight, you never stop looking.
Overview
The relationships of two couples become complicated and deceitful when the man from one couple meets the woman of the other.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.2/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.38/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
Metacritic: 65
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Mike Nichols
Production
Columbia Pictures, Inside Track
Cast
Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Colin Stinton, Nick Hobbs, Steve Benham, Elizabeth Bower, Daniel Dresner, Rrenford Junior Fagan, Antony Gabriel, Michael Haley, Selena Mars, Steve Morphew, Peter Rnic, Robert Stone, Jacqui-Lee Pryce, Rene Costa
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, bruising relationship drama about desire, betrayal, and the cruelty people use to protect themselves. It’s talky, intimate, and deliberately uncomfortable, with strong performances and a coldly elegant script that turns emotional damage into spectacle.
Best for
Viewers who like adult relationship dramas with bite
Fans of emotionally raw, dialogue-driven films
People drawn to messy love quadrangles and infidelity stories
Audiences who appreciate polished acting showcases
Skip if
You want sympathetic characters or easy emotional catharsis
You dislike explicit sexual dialogue and infidelity-heavy plots
You prefer warm, romantic, or hopeful love stories
You’re looking for action, plot twists, or a fast pace
Overview
Closer is a sleek, savage chamber drama that treats love like a series of negotiations, betrayals, and self-mythologies. Mike Nichols stages the four-way emotional collapse with precision, letting the dialogue land like scalpels and giving each actor room to expose vanity, need, and cruelty.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is how unsparing it is about attraction and honesty: the film understands that people often want intimacy and punishment in equal measure. The performances are the engine, especially in the way they shift from seduction to humiliation without warning.
Bottom line
It can feel icy and abrasive by design, and its characters are intentionally hard to like. But if you respond to adult melodrama with a mean streak, this is one of the defining films of its kind: glossy, brutal, and painfully observant about the damage people do when they mistake desire for truth.
Top Letterboxd reviews
kyle (4★) · 12043 likes
when jude law typed
i lik it off like the dirty slut i am. wait have 2 type with 1 hand am cumming right now.... ohohohohohohohohohohhohohohohohoohohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo+_)(*&^%$£"!"£$%&(*&(*^%&^%$££"D!"$%^&*(((*&(**&*12303894848575us7sjc7d78s87o/s878usuiu7sbom/
...i felt that
guilherme (4.5★) · 11232 likes
it wouldn't have been a sad movie if they were ok with a foursome
jas (3★) · 9897 likes
natalie portman in a strip club with a pink wig while the smiths is playing in the background truly is the pinnacle of cinema
shaneya (4.5★) · 7568 likes
everyone in this movie is an asshole except my queen natalie portman.
mia lee vicino (4★) · 6285 likes
“lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, but it’s better if you do.” “you like him coming in your face?”“yes.”“how does it taste?”“it tastes like you but sweeter.”
pretty wild how panic! at the disco and fall out boy lifted their lines directly from closer (2004). like, out of all the movies in the world why did this one resonate so deeply with pop punk bands? the entire plot is… more