Closer (film) - Plot

Plot

In the opening scene, a girl (Natalie Portman) and a young man (Jude Law) see each other for the first time from opposite sides of a street in London. The girl looks in the wrong direction as she crosses the street and is hit by a taxicab right in front of the young man. He rushes over; she smiles at him and says, "hello, stranger". He takes her to a hospital, where she is treated and released. Afterward, on the way to his office, they stop by Postman's Park. Here they introduce themselves: she is 20 years old and has just arrived in London from the United States where she had been stripping for a living; he's Dan Woolf, an unsuccessful aspiring British writer who is on his way to work, where he writes obituaries for a national newspaper. Before he leaves her and goes to work, he asks her for her name and she answers Alice Ayres. They soon start a relationship. A year later, Dan is straying. He has written a novel based on Alice's life and while being photographed to publicize it, he flirts with the American photographer Anna Cameron (Julia Roberts). Anna and Dan kiss, before she finds out that Dan and Alice are in a relationship. Alice arrives and asks to use Anna's bathroom, leaving Anna and Dan alone again. Dan takes the opportunity to try to persuade Anna to have an affair with him, but is cut short by Alice's return. Alice asks Anna if she can have her portrait taken as well. Anna agrees and Alice asks Dan to leave them alone during the photo shooting. While being photographed, she reveals to Anna that she overheard them, and is photographed weeping. Alice does not reveal what she overheard to Dan, even as he spends a year stalking Anna, who resists.

Another year later, Dan enters a cybersex chat room and randomly meets Larry Gray (Clive Owen), a British dermatologist. With Anna still on his mind, Dan pretends to be her, and using the pretense that they will have sex, Dan convinces Larry to meet at the aquarium (where Anna told Dan she often went). Larry goes to the meeting place where by coincidence Anna is. He approaches her, but it turns out they have been set up. Feeling foolish, Larry apologizes but is confused by the situation. Anna tells Larry that a man who had pursued her, Dan, was most likely to blame for the setup. Soon, Anna and Larry become a couple and they refer to Dan as "Cupid" as their inside joke. Four months later, at Anna's photo exhibition, Larry meets Alice, whom he recognizes from the tearful photograph that is one of many being exhibited. Larry knows that Alice and Dan are a couple from talking to Anna and they flirt. Meanwhile, Dan convinces Anna to become involved with him. A year passes, and Dan and Anna have been cheating on their partners, even though Anna and Larry married during the affair. Dan and Anna both decide to confess to Alice and Larry and are prepared to break their current partnerships to be with each other. Alice, deeply upset, leaves Dan without telling him where she is going. Before Anna can tell Larry, who has just returned from a business trip, Larry confesses that he slept with a woman on his business trip. She in turn reveals that she has been having an affair with Dan. As Larry and Anna argue she reveals that she thought he would hit her when he found out - something Larry takes offence to.

Alice goes back to stripping to support herself while staying in London, being still in love with Dan. One day, Larry runs into her accidentally at the strip club and realizes that he knows her, even though she is wearing a pink wig. He asks her if her name is Alice, knowing full well who she is, but no matter how much money he gives her, she keeps telling him her name is "Jane Jones." He asks her to come home with him so he can look after her, but she refuses. The line of questioning becomes pornographic, albeit without any explicit nudity, when Larry asks Alice, "what does your cunt taste like?" Alice replies with a smile, "heaven". Larry then demands, "Alice, tell me something true". Alice replies, "lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off...but it's better if you do". The full irony of Alice's response is not apparent until the conclusion of the film.

After four months living with Dan, Anna meets Larry to obtain his signature on the divorce papers. Larry tries to convince her to come back to him, but she refuses, so he refuses in turn to sign for divorce unless she has sex with him for the last time, on the examination table at his new practice. Reluctantly, Anna acquiesces. Later, Dan asks Anna about her meeting with Larry and realises what's happened; unable to forgive her, he breaks off the relationship.

Some time afterwards, Dan goes to Larry's office, asking him to let Anna come back to him, as she is now with Larry again. The office that Larry and Anna had sex in is now fully functional and Larry is successful with his private practice. He tells Dan that Anna secretly doesn't want to be happy, and that she never gave the signed divorce papers to her lawyer. Larry tells Dan that love needs compromise and suggests that he try to get Alice back, but Dan doesn't know where she is. Larry tells him not only where to find Alice, but also that he and Alice had sex. Alice takes Dan back and she decides to take them both to America as a surprise vacation. They get a hotel room near Heathrow Airport, happy to be back together. Alice notes that four years ago today is the day when they first met on that London street. They reminisce, then Dan can't help himself and asks her whether she had sex with Larry, which she initially truthfully denies. When he insists on the truth, she suddenly tells him that she doesn't love him anymore and goes on to say that she did have sex with Larry that night he found her working at the strip club. Dan then reveals that Larry had already told him about the one-night stand but that he's already forgiven her. She is angry that he tricked her and insists that it's over and tells him to leave. He refuses, but she threatens to call security. He does not believe her, and as she picks up the phone, he grabs her and questions her angrily about why she slept with Larry. She eventually says it's because Dan wasn't there, they continue to argue, and she spits in his face. Dan almost hits her but refrains. She encourages him to hit her and he does. She looks at him in shock.

After Dan hits her, Alice returns to New York alone. Passing through the immigration checkpoint on her way back into the United States, it is revealed through a shot of her passport that her name is indeed Jane Rachel Jones (the name she had given Larry in the strip club) and that she had lied about her name for the duration of her four-year relationship with Dan. Back in London, Dan returns to Postman's Park. To his surprise, he notices the name "Alice Ayres" on a tile that is dedicated to a girl "who by intrepid conduct" and at the cost of her young life saved three children. The final scene shows Alice/Jane walking on Broadway towards W 47th St, approaching a red "do not walk" pedestrian light; with passers-by staring at her, stunned at her beauty. A scene symmetrical with the opening scene, where Alice/Jane and Dan are staring at each other on the streets of London.