Villacreces: Closer Strongest Character

In the movie “Closer” by the director Mike Nochols, relationships, love, cheating, and hurting are the recurring and main themes. The four main characters, Dan (Jude Law), Alice (Natalie Portman), Larry (Clive Owen) and Anna (Julia Roberts) are part of a four person relationships that is destroying each one of them. In my opinion the strongest character in Closer is Dan (Jude Law). Although he is a peaceful and quiet character, he is the one that brings all four characters “closer”. To Larry and Anna he was considered “cupid” because his game in the Internet with Larry cause Larry and Anna to meet. To Alice he was the man he loved, and the man that was making her stay in London instead of running away. Once Dan left Alice for Anna, Alice ran away and decided to hide.

Dan had the major impact in the actions of the other three characters. He did not know what he wanted, so every time he changed his mind the rest of the characters would change. For example, when he decided to tell Alice that he was seeing Anna, and Anna tells Larry. Both Anna and Dan are together, while Larry and Alice meet and have a sexual encounter. In the movie Dan is a writer, as a writer he dictates what the characters do, that is what he was doing to Alice, Anna and Larry. He was moving them around as he wanted, but at the end he ends up alone.

In this scene we have Alice (Natalie Portman) standing alone next to her picture in Anna's exposition. The dominant in this frame is Alice's picture. In this picture she looks sad because she found out that Dan had cheated on her with Anna. She is also in this scene and her pose look s as if she is disappointed and sad, just like the picture. It has been a year since she found that out, and that image is following her once again. She feels as disappointed as she was a year ago. The picture presents a flashback from that day at the loft.

The shot and camera proxemics are form far away, it is a full wide shot. You are able to see the whole background and the character. The character is not the main focus of the shot that is why she is small and with no movement. Also the lighting focuses more in the photograph than in the character, the character is just there in the darkness as if she was sad and hiding from the rest of the people in the exposition.

In the camera angle it seems as if we were looking down at the character with pity, as if we knew why she was sad. We know what happened in the scene in which the photograph was taken and in the scene that is happening know. We know her pain.

Closer is very interesting movie about love, relationships and deception. All fou actors made a great job presenting each character as they should have.