Closer - a movie review.

My wife and I watched the movie Closer last night. She was surprised that I didn't mind seeing it, and i realized why once it started -- it wasn't a movie about relief pitching in baseball. Actually, I am still having trouble figuring out what significance the title has with the content of the movie.
I was a little disappointed in the overall movie. As a film, it did things well -- it had great unity bringing closure to things that happened throughout the story while ending the same way it begins. The film played loose with the timeline in a way that made the next year feel like the next day, not letting the viewer know how much time had passed until it was necessary, and never waiting too long as to frustrate or confuse the viewer. There were elements of this movie that I really liked, including some time spent focusing on photos, or film "stills", during a motion picture -- that irony was not lost on me. The idea of the photographs all being "a lie" was a view on the character's personality as well as the writer/director's opinion of the medium itself. All these things were very well done, but I do not think that it could save the story of the vulgar and unhappy, miserable lives the characters lead and make this film enjoyable to watch.
None of the characters were at all likeable. Even at the point when you think Alice (Natalie Portman) is a likeable or sympathetic character, the story takes you down another path which ruins that idea completely. Each of the four characters spend the 4 years of movie time lying to themselves in order to convince themselves that they have what makes them happy. Each of the four characters do despicable things to themselves and each other. My wife suggested that the only thing that made the movie endurable was that they didn't do these things to anyone outside of this group of four. It was hard to watch without wondering who actually acts like this in our real world -- how could people let this go on for so long, how could people be so cruel to each other? I think that the answer is in what the movie omits from the story -- the jumps in the timeline conveniently leaves out any explanation for the horrible decisions these people make. The film catches us up on the story by telling us just enough for us to understand that bad decisions have been made, but makes no justification for them. We are left to believe that these are just bad people, making poor decisions. None of the characters, as a result, were at all likeable.
For stylistic elements, a decent soundtrack (I can't listen to that Damien Rice song in the same way ever again), and well done elements of film, it might be worth the 100 minutes. But if you want to see a story about lovers who end up with the wrong mate, who then decide to switch things around a little to see if they can get it right, ending with some justifiable reason for the infidelity like "True Love wins over all", then you have come to the wrong place. Skip it, and check out Shrek 2 instead.