Closer by Patrick Marber was nominated for two Academy Awards: for Best Actress in a Supporting role for Natalie Portman, who would win it for Black Swan later, and for Best Actor in a Supporting role for Clive Owen, a formidable thespian that somehow has disappeared, at least from my home screen – what happened to him? Let me know, or should I just google this – I saw it again last night, and it is outré, but I think I liked it better at the second take…it has to do with mood and other factors. I will promote my blog and YouTube channel – this is where you find more than five thousand notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other pages, together with reviews of books from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Closer by Patrick Marber was nominated for two Academy Awards: for Best Actress in a Supporting role for Natalie Portman, who would win it for Black Swan later, and for Best Actor in a Supporting role for Clive Owen, a formidable thespian that somehow has disappeared, at least from my home screen – what happened to him? Let me know, or should I just google this – I saw it again last night, and it is outré, but I think I liked it better at the second take…it has to do with mood and other factors. I will promote my blog and YouTube channel – this is where you find more than five thousand notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other pages, together with reviews of books from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

 

9 out of 10

 

It is strange to see that one likes a motion picture better the second time, it is for me nonetheless, most often I wonder what on earth did I find in this movie or book, the first time around https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/06/white-man-falling-by-mike-stocks-ten.html White Man Falling was about there

 

Jude Law is Dan, a writer without much success, he is in this office, to have his picture taken for the cover of his (quite erotic) book, and the professional photographer is Anna aka Julia Roberts – I was thinking how both her and Natalie Portman would win the Oscar later, Julia Roberts for Erin Brokovich, while their partners have failed so far to win it

Erin Brockovich was a tour de force https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/11/erin-brockovich-by-susannah-grant.html but we have a quartet of actors here that is nec plus ultra, perhaps Jude Law is not quite at the zenith reached by the others, still, the overall effect is impressive, this is a formidable film if you ask me

 

There is a sense that the plot is not believable, conversations, humor, erotic lines are pushed outside the ‘normal’, only I must repeat this: I liked it, yes, there is a sense of the bizarre, for instance, when Dan is online, this is 2005, in the prehistory of the internet, before all the apps, Tinder and all, and enters this sex chat room

We also have a doctor, Larry aka fabulous Clive Owen, and they enter this sexual conversation, about virginity, as in one is for the first time in this space, then they quickly move to sucking, XXL penis and more like this- a meeting is mentioned, and the doctor goes to this aquarium, where we see Anna, the photographer

 

I have mixed the scenes, before this, early on, Dan and Anna are attracted to each other during the photo session, they kiss, and Alice aka superb Natalie Portman is at the door, she is Dan’s lover, so we will have this foursome of changed commitments, intense coitus, and incredible lines, hard to believe they utter them

In one moment of jealousy, one partner is asking if she ‘sucked his cock, his sperm was on the face, what does it taste like, and she says about the same as yours, only sweeter’, words to that effect, in fact, I think it may be just what she said, it was so shocking, I think it is still in my memory, or maybe not, I am making this up

 

Larry talks to Anna at the aquarium, thinking she is the woman who was so lurid, a nymphomaniac, only it was not her, it was crazy Dan…notwithstanding this confusion, Larry and Anna become a couple, months later they meet with Dan and Alice, and then they will change allegiance, Anna has an affair with Dan

They should have read the psychology classic The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-seven-principles-of-making-marriage.html by John Gottman, however, there are more changes, and it does feel as if this is not what we see in real life, but then look at Orange Woland, do you believe e is possible, and in the [position he has?

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’