Closer

Searing story of betrayal isn't for kids.

Closer is no joke and it's got the brave, mature performances of an all-star cast to prove it. It's a movie in which characters feel each other up with their hands and knock each other down with words.

Like dramas by Pinter and others, what seems trenchant and perfectly pitched in the theater can come off as arch even when skillfully transferred to film.

Owen and Portman give excellent, committed performances, leaving Law and Roberts in the shade.

Thanks to Marber's whiplash dialogue, the cast suffer with an eloquence that's uncommon in the movies, but that's about as far as it goes.

'People are filthy, they're not worth lifting a finger for.' Closer conveys this sentiment more powerfully than anything else.

Clive Owen gives the deepest and most emotionally nuanced performance as a dermatologist desperate for love and loyalty, and Natalie Portman is a close second as the coy stripper beholden to Jude Law's self-centered, stalled writer.

Closer's world is a gentle one, a place of kindness. It is these people who are bringing spite into it.

Each frame of the film seems infused with vibrant life, even when the tone switches from dark to darker.