Movies: Let's Talk About Sex

At last, a love story for adults. In Closer, Mike Nichols explores the thrilling and damaging effects of passion

No sadistic cop could grill a suspect with more brutal intensity than a man brings to the job of questioning the woman who's about to walk out on him. In just a few minutes, Larry (Clive Owen) has experienced the first five stages of the cuckolded male: denial, derision, pleading, sobbing, threatening. Now, in confronting Anna (Julia Roberts) about her lover Dan (Jude Law), he atavizes into Caveman, the alpha male in competitive fury. "Where did you make love: What parts of the house, what parts of the body?" "How did Dan perform?" "Was he 'better'?" "Gentler," she acknowledges, depleted by the hard truths he's forcing out...

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