Closer (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Trailer-Hitch, Spanglish Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer Music Video-'The Blower's Daughter' Performed By Damien Rice Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Are We There Yet?, The Forgotten, Little Black Book
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	99:38
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mike Nichols
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Natalie Portman Jude Law Julia Roberts Clive Owen Nick Hobbs Colin Stinton
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Steven Patrick Morrissey

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Italian	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I chose to review this film without really knowing a lot about it except that it had been nominated for some acting Academy Awards and had won two Golden Globes in the same categories. I also knew that it had an interesting cast including Jude Law, Clive Owen, Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts and was basically a relationship drama. The film was quite surprising, and quite different to what I expected; deep, intense, confronting and thought provoking.

    Closer was directed by Hollywood veteran Mike Nichols who is no stranger to confronting filmmaking having won an Oscar for his work on The Graduate in 1967, which was a confronting film for its time. He has also received three other nominations for his directorial work. It is based on a play and has been adapted for the screen by the playwright himself, Patrick Marber. The story follows the intertwining lives of four people. Dan (Jude Law) is a self-absorbed obituary writer who really wants to be an author. One day as he is walking to work in London, he notices an attractive young girl coming the other way. When she gets run over by a car, he rushes to assist. After taking her to the hospital, he starts a relationship with her, finding out that her name is Alice (Natalie Portman). She is a visitor from the United States. Some time later he writes a graphic book about their sexual relationship and while posing for a cover photograph meets photographer Anna (Julia Roberts) and tries to pick her up despite still being in a relationship with Alice. When she refuses to meet him, he plays a trick on her which causes her to meet Larry (Clive Owen), a dermatologist. They begin a relationship, however Dan has not given up. Love, lies, infidelity, sex, truth and self-destructive relationships ensue.

    There are two things which really stand out about this film; the script and the fantastic performances, especially from Natalie Portman (in a very adult role) and Clive Owen. They are both stunningly good in this film and it is easy to see why they both won Golden Globes and were nominated for Oscars at this year's ceremonies. This film should be seen by fans of acting for these two performances. Jude Law holds his own, however Julia Roberts suffers by comparison to the rest of the cast. Having said that, it is great to see her in something edgy. The script includes lots of great dialogue and is quite explicit sexually, so this is not a film for grannies or children. The film does not include much of the romance but is more focused on the pain caused by infidelity, lies and loving the wrong person. It is a searing and compelling drama which is extremely well made. The ending of the film is also excellent, revealing truths which had only been hinted at during the film. Another strength of the film is a song, The Blower's Daughter, by Damien Rice which is used as the opening and closing theme of the film. It is very haunting and significantly adds to the feel of the film. The film also makes interesting use of time, jumping forward quite quickly at times, without explanation and then repeating the same day at other points. This is never confusing but sometimes it takes a few lines of dialogue for you to work out how far you have jumped.

    This is not a film which should be entered into lightly, however, I would heartily recommend it to adult audiences.

Video

    The video quality is generally excellent, however suffers from one significant artefact, edge enhancement.

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was excellent. The film was transferred at a high bitrate.

    The colour was excellent with no issues to report.

    As mentioned above there was some quite obvious edge enhancement in this transfer which is disappointing for such a new film. Examples can be seen at 5:20 around the jacket, 14:05 on someone's back and 74:37 on Clive Owen. There was also some very mild aliasing here and there such as on the steps at 9:06 and the fence at 31:38. I noticed one white speck at 52:00.

    There are subtitles in 2 languages including English & English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read.

    There is no layer change during the main feature.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent despite not really being a film to test your home theatre with.

    This DVD contains two audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and the same in Italian..

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync. Some of the dialogue was a little difficult to make out but this seems to be a function of the source rather than the transfer.

    The score of this film by Steven Patrick Morrissey is very good and, combined with some excellent music choices such as the haunting theme song, provides an all round excellent music experience.

    The surround speakers added mostly atmosphere. Considering that this is a dialogue-driven film, you would not expect huge amounts of surround activity. The only specific surround effect that I noticed was an aeroplane at 82:50.

     The subwoofer was used to add bass to the music and the aforementioned aeroplane.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Extras are exceedingly sparse on this disc.

Menu

    The menu includes an intro, scenes from the film and music. It allows for language and scene selection. The menu is preceded by trailers, however, you can skip past them.

Music Video - The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice (5:08)

    An interesting video clip for the haunting theme song mentioned above. Presented non 16x9 enhanced and in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Theatrical Trailer (2:20)

    A high quality trailer which introduces the premise of the film well.

Other Trailers

    Trailers are also included for Hitch, Spanglish, Are We There Yet?, The Forgotten and Little Black Book.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• A Superbit transfer (although this version is done at a high bitrate)
• English DTS soundtrack

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    On this basis you would have to go for the Region 1 version.

    The video quality is excellent but features some edge enhancement.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The disc has only a small amount of extras, which is a shame for such an interesting film.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall