After The Fact

I finally saw Closer. The observant reader will most likely be able to figure out what prompted me to get my ass off the couch and put it back down at the movie theater.
It wasn't exactly a captivating film. In point of fact I actually got bored a few times. The director doesn't bring the viewer close to the characters at all, only their indiscretions. The breakups don't mean much when you're not invested in the relationships and haven't seen these people doing anything other than screwing around and confessing infidelity. Hearing Julia Roberts compare the taste of Jude Law's and Clive Owen's man juices, followed shortly thereafter by Natalie Portman's decidedly un-Amidala-like flashing of her goods did manage to hold my attention for a few minutes, but overall I wasn't riveted to the screen.
But the end. Oh sweet Moses. It's one of those movies like Y Tu Mama Tambien, where the end just changes everything that happened over the last 2 hours and makes you think for days. It also makes you kind of want to be Natalie Portman. Minus the whole cooch-bearing thing.