Julia Roberts is not a one-trick pony, with the actor dazzling audiences with her versatility after her breakthrough role in Pretty Woman, going on to star in everything from fantasies, legal dramas and psychosexual thrillers. Whether it be her Oscar-winning performance in Erin Brockovich, endearing timelessness of Notting Hill or independent dramas such as The Player and her upcoming project with Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino, the actor has constantly demonstrated a knack for surprise and adaptability.
Through decades of performances with some of the most accomplished artists in the business, she has established herself within Hollywood royalty for her undeniable screen presence and watchability, remaining as one of the ultimate leading women of her generation. But amidst all the cult classics and commercial hits, Roberts has also starred in some controversial projects that divided both fans and critics, with one prime example of this being her 2004 film Closer.
Directed by the legendary Mike Nichols, who is known for his pioneering comedy career and creation of the monumentally influential film The Graduate, Closer is an adaptation of an original play by Patrick Marber, who frequently collaborated with the director. Starring Natalie Portman, Jude Laws, Clive Owen and Roberts, it follows four strangers who drift in and out of each other’s romantic lives through a series of chance encounters, meetings and betrayals.
The film has a uniquely clinical and stilted dialogue style, with each character talking in a way that reflects the coldness of the subject matter and Marber’s critique of people who yearn for intimacy without being able to get ‘closer’ to each other. Each character in the film follows the pattern of beginning in a relationship with one of the characters, before briefly having an affair with the other and returning to their original partner. It is brutal in its indictment of modern love and our inability to commit, leading to a story in which everyone is romantically unfulfilled and pining for an intimacy that they cannot have.
Roberts is spectacular in the role of Anna, flitting between feelings of guilt, love and resigning herself to unhappiness as she settles for a bad marriage with Larry, played by Owen. However, there is one scene that sticks out as particularly painful, with the couple having a brutal argument after Larry finds out that Anna has been having an affair with Law’s character, demanding to know every detail of their sexual encounters and asking for explicit information on how they both performed in bed.
When discussing the filming of this scene, Roberts described it as, “Horrible. We called it The Scene. I had so many different reactions to it. We rehearsed it once, and I just wept through the whole thing. The next time, I laughed through it. I was really glad when it was done.”
It is obvious why the scene was so uncomfortable to film, with Nichols not looking away from the tension between them for even a second as he lingers in the total destruction of a relationship, reiterating the brutal message of the film and our failed attempts to forge meaningful relationships in a modern world.
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