Closer (2004, Mike Nichols)

I usually don't write essays about things I don't like or hate, but this time I'll make an exception. Mike Nichols put himself in all movie history books with classics such as debut Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (1966), The Graduate (1967) with unforgettable Dustin Hoffman and yet more unforgettable Mr. Robinson – Anne Bancroft, Catch-22 (1970), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988) etc. What a great filmography!
He is really somebody in movie business. So I watched Closer before several days... and I was totally angry! I can't remember right now movie which made me same effect. I wasn't bored while I was watching , I was totally pissed off! The dialogues there are so artificial, characters are totally irritating, even the acting of main 4 (and only) roles can be called "over-acting", although I think that Jude Law, Clive Owen, Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman are good actors. It was embarassing to see Jude Law's pathetics, Clive Owen's artificial agression, Julia Roberts's badly acted dealing with emotional doubts and Natalie Portman's transformations from strange sweet American girl to stripper and finally man-eater. As I see it, one of the most important roles of director is to lead actors to play their roles with persuasion and give the best they can. Besides I think that Nichols completely missed with adaptation of very popular theatrical play from Patrick Marber and directed this movie without any passion and energy, I put thumbs down especially for actors. This obviously very ambitious movie about complex human relations between lovers and would be-lovers sucks, but if you want to watch something good about similar theme, see Sideways or Lost in Translation, for example.