Closer

Smart-but-ineffectual journalist Dan "We use euphemisms!" cant decide between his girlfriend, loving-but-clingy waitress Alice, or his lover cold-but-intellectual photographer Anna. Anna herself cant decide between Dan and honest-but-thuggish "You're bloody gorgeous!" doctor Larry. The film, as Tarantino might put it, puts the four leading characters in a box and then takes them apart.

An elaborate character study of two London couples as they engage in an ultimate game of partner swapping. Alice/Jane is a gorgeous young runaway from New York's seedy sex industry; she soon pairs up with Dan, a thoughtful but unsuccessful novelist and journalist, who authors a book about her. Anna is a quietly independent divorce and successful photographer. After Dan makes a move on her during a photo session for the book, she rejects Dan, who retaliates by tricking her into a relationship with Larry, a dermatologist with the lust and manners of a soccer hooligan. The plot revolves around the infatuation of the couples for one another. If they could only treat these dalliances with the silence they deserve, there would be no story here. Instead, they are brutally "honest" about their faithlessness, sometimes inventing boinks that never occurred to "test the love" of their significant other. Ultimately, each ends up with the partner for whom they are best suited; but has their desire to "win" at the game of love diminished their capacity to love and to enjoy its fruits?

In London, the new arrival Alice Ayres meets the mediocre obituary journalist Daniel and they move together. Dan writes a book, inspired in the life of Alice, and while photographing for the release of the book, he meets the photographer Anna. Dan "introduces" the dermatologist Larry to Anna, and they get married. However, Dan and Anna have a passionate affair, complicating the relationship of the couples.

Set in London, England, good Samaritan Dan Woolf, a struggling writer, takes Alice Ayres, a shady young woman and part-time stripper, to the hospital when she's hit by a car, and they fall in love. One year later, Dan meets photographer Anna Cameron and tries to pick her up, but she rebuffs him. In revenge, Dan sets Anna up for an embarrassing encounter with sex-addicted dermatologist Larry Gray, but the two end up seeing each other. Then another year later, Dan and Anna begin an affair of their own, and relationships between the four collapse. Over the next year, all of them become obsessed with hurting each other and wreak some heavy emotional damage. Will any of them be strong enough to put this destructive sequence of events to a stop?