Closer -2004- -

Hello, stranger.

Set against the gray pulse of London, Closer asks a brutal question: Do we ever truly know the person in our arms? Or do we only know the version of them we’ve invented — and punish them when they fail to perform it?

“I love you.” “Prove it.”

The famous line — “I wouldn’t even piss on you if you were on fire” — isn’t cruelty. It’s honesty. And in Closer , honesty is the most dangerous thing of all.

Closer is not a love story. It is a dissection of one — held under fluorescent light, no anesthesia. Closer -2004-

Because getting closer doesn’t mean arriving. It just means the fall is shorter.

Natalie Portman’s Alice dances through the wreckage like a ghost in a strip club. Jude Law’s Dan writes obituaries for the living. Julia Roberts’ Anna photographs strangers’ faces as if looking for her own reflection. Clive Owen’s Larry howls with the fury of a man who realizes that possession is not the same as love. Hello, stranger

In the beginning, there is a stranger. In the next breath, a wound.