Closer
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Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Four Londoners exchange partners over four years; the internet chat-room scene and the strip-club scene as two kinds of honesty.
On a London street, Dan Woolf, a journalist who wants to write novels, sees a young American woman step into the traffic and get hit by a car. He takes her to hospital. She says she is Alice Ayres, a stripper just arrived from New York. On the way back they stop in Postman's Park, and soon they are living together.
A year later Dan has written a novel based on Alice's life. At a photo shoot for it he kisses the photographer, an American named Anna Cameron. Alice overhears him pressing Anna to meet again and says nothing; Anna photographs her in tears. A year on, still thinking about Anna, Dan pretends to be her in an internet sex chat room and lures a stranger, Larry Gray, a dermatologist, to an aquarium she often visits. There Larry meets the real Anna, and they become a couple.
At Anna's exhibition Larry meets Alice, recognising her from the photograph of her crying. Dan talks Anna into an affair that lasts a year, through her wedding to Larry. When Larry, back from a trip, confesses to sleeping with a prostitute, Anna confesses too, and Dan tells Alice. Dan and Anna leave their partners for each other.
Alice goes back to stripping. Larry finds her at a club and asks her real name; she says it is Jane Jones, and he does not believe her. She will not sleep with him. Larry tells Anna he will sign the divorce papers only if she sleeps with him one last time. She does, to be free of him, and Dan cannot forgive her. When Dan pleads for her, Larry tells him Anna never filed the papers and sends him back to Alice. Anna returns to Larry.
Dan and Alice plan a trip to America. In an airport hotel Dan presses her about Larry until she says she did sleep with him and no longer loves Dan. He slaps her. She flies home alone. Her passport reads Jane Jones: for four years she gave Dan a false name, and told Larry the truth. In Postman's Park Dan finds the name Alice Ayres on a memorial to a young woman who died saving three children from a fire. In New York, Alice walks on through the crowd.
Starring
Natalie Portmanas Alice Ayres / Jane Jones
A young American stripper newly arrived in London, who gives Dan her heart and a name that is not her own.
Alice Ayres / Jane Jones’s story
Alice is new to London from New York when a car knocks her down and Dan takes her to hospital. Soon they are living together, and a year later he turns her life into a novel. At his photo shoot she overhears him pressing Anna to meet, lets Anna photograph her in tears, and says nothing. When Dan leaves her for Anna, she vanishes from his life and goes back to stripping. Larry finds her at a club and demands her real name; she says it is Jane Jones, and he does not believe her. She will not sleep with him. She takes Dan back, but in an airport hotel, pressed about Larry, she says she slept with him and no longer loves Dan, who slaps her. She flies home alone. Her passport reads Jane Jones.
Jude Lawas Dan Woolf
A journalist and would-be novelist who writes a book about Alice and cannot stop wanting Anna.
Dan Woolf’s story
Dan writes obituaries. He takes Alice to hospital after a car hits her, moves in with her, and a year later publishes a novel drawn from her life. At the photo shoot for it he kisses the photographer, Anna, and cannot forget her. Posing as Anna in an internet sex chat, he sends Larry to her aquarium, and the prank brings them together. He talks Anna into a year-long affair and leaves Alice for her, but cannot forgive her for sleeping with Larry to get the divorce papers signed. He begs Larry for her and is sent back to Alice. In an airport hotel he presses Alice until she says she slept with Larry, and he slaps her. In Postman's Park he finds the name she gave him on a memorial to a woman who died saving three children.
Julia Robertsas Anna Cameron
An American photographer in London, caught between Dan, who pursues her, and Larry, whom she marries.
Anna Cameron’s story
Anna, an American photographer in London, is taking Dan's picture for his book jacket when he kisses her, and the same day she photographs Alice in tears; the portrait later hangs in her exhibition. A prank of Dan's brings a stranger, Larry, to the aquarium where she often goes, and after a laugh at the mix-up they fall for each other. Dan talks her into an affair that runs for a year, through her wedding to Larry. When Larry confesses to sleeping with a prostitute, she confesses too, and leaves him for Dan. Larry then names his price for signing the divorce papers: one last night with her. She pays it to be free of him, and Dan cannot forgive her. She goes back to Larry. The signed papers are never filed.
Clive Owenas Larry Gray
A dermatologist drawn in by Dan's online prank, who falls for Anna and fights hard to keep her.
Larry Gray’s story
Larry, a dermatologist, is chatting in an internet sex room when 'Anna' invites him to the aquarium. The woman he finds there is the real Anna, who knows nothing about it, and they fall for each other and marry. On a work trip he sleeps with a prostitute, confesses, and hears in return that Anna has been sleeping with Dan for a year; she leaves him for Dan. He finds Alice at a strip club, demands her real name and will not believe her when she says Jane Jones. Then he offers Anna a bargain: one more night with him for his signature on the divorce papers. She agrees, and Dan cannot bear it. When Dan comes to beg for Anna, Larry tells him she never filed the papers and sends him back to Alice. Anna comes home.
Why it matters
Closer is about four people who keep telling each other the truth, and how little good it does them. Every confession is also a blow: who slept with whom, where, and whether it was better. Patrick Marber adapted his own play for Mike Nichols, and the film keeps its stark shape, leaping months or a year between scenes so that the start of each love sits beside its end. Its subjects are jealousy and the demand to know everything, the anonymous sex of a chat room and the paid intimacy of a strip club, and the bargain Larry forces on Anna in exchange for his signature. Natalie Portman and Clive Owen both won Golden Globes for it and were nominated for Academy Awards. The last revelation is the one that lingers: the woman who seemed the most open of the four never told the man she loved her real name.