Closer (2004)

The people we love most are often the ones we hurt most deeply, and honesty can cut as sharply as any lie. Four stunningly attractive people do terrible things to one another in Mike Nichols' "Closer," a biting adaptation of Patrick Marber's play, which Marber adapted himself, and easily the Oscar-winning director's best work in years. Anna (Julia Roberts) is a photographer who specializes in portraits of strangers; Dan (Jude Law) is an obituary writer struggling to become a novelist; Alice (Natalie Portman) is a young American stripper newly arrived in London after a bad breakup; and Larry (Clive Owen) is a blunt dermatologist who finds love through an unlikely prank. When their lives collide, the result is a dizzying explosion of emotions, as Nichols and Marber skillfully build scenes that pair the four again and again in shifting combinations of passion, heartbreak, anger, sadness, revenge, begging, deception and, above all, brutal honesty. More than halfway through, you may find yourself asking why you're watching such a beautifully tragic story, since it feels like the ugliest, most painful moments of every past relationship strung together in a single film. Ultimately, it's up to the four actors to pull you deeper in, and all of them largely succeed, but it's Law and Owen whose characters cut to the bone. Law proves once again that he's at his best playing charming, amoral cads with a manipulative streak, and Owen is nothing short of brilliant as the character most energized by destructive relationships, whether he's dishing out the pain or taking it. Owen and Portman both won Golden Globes and earned Oscar nominations.