It shouldn’t need to be pointed out that wanton eroticism is about as bankable an artform as you’ll find on streaming, and while there’s plenty of salacious content to be found within Mike Nichols’ Closer, the filmmaker’s adaptation of the titular stage play is a million miles away from being all skin and no substance.
Roping in an A-list quartet to play the four central roles, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen in particular knocked it clean out of the park, winning Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor, as well as being nominated in the corresponding categories at the Academy Awards. Jude Law and Julia Roberts are every bit as good, though, even if the performances are so strong things get borderline uncomfortable as their intertwined lives begin to fall apart at the seams.
Audiences were suitably thrilled, seeing as Closer would go on to recoup its $25 million budget almost five times over to cement itself as a critical, commercial, and awards season favorite, with streaming subscribers hopping on board after FlixPatrol named the riveting exploration of love, lust, infidelity, and secrets as one of the top-viewed features on both iTunes and Rakuten this week.
The star-studded leads find themselves mixing, matching, crossing paths, uncovering revelations, flirting, and everything in between as Law’s writer, Portman’s stripper, Roberts’ photographer, and Owen’s dermatologist try desperately to untangle themselves from a complex and complicated web of half-truths, deceit, and outright lies. Best not to watch on a first date, but Closer remains as enrapturing now as it was 19 years ago when it first released.