The Conspicuous Absence of Act II, Scene 9 in the Film Version of Closer - Eric Shapiro - 10/17/10 - Writing About Drama ...
Patrick Marber’s Closer is essentially a protracted power struggle between four sadistic, dysfunctional, confused and dependent individuals who use each other as pawns to fulfill their own needs. Each character has an ostensibly different personality, but underneath the surface they are all extremely selfish. They talk of love and two of them even get married, but, whether they are aware of it or not, Dan, Larry, Anna and Alice are all exclusively concerned with their own gratification, which depends on the others’ humiliation. Each character’s selfishness manifests itself in a different neurosis, often involving their perception or definition of truth.
As the play progresses, the scales shift in favor of different characters, but it is clear that all of them are doomed to a life of unhappiness by their unwillingness or inability to comprehend human relationships and their inability to see outside themselves. True empathy is a foreign concept to them. Ironically, their inability to care for one another is what dooms them to a state of miserable isolation.
Although the film version of Closer is quite similar to the play, one cut scene has a major impact. Alice and Anna are affected the most by this change. Indeed, the fundamental natures of their personalities are obscured, if not completely altered. By the end of the play, in large part due to Act II, scene 9, the reader is as aware of the women’s moral flaws and lapses as those of the men. In the film, due to the absence of this key scene, the men come across as the primary aggressors and, consequently, the ones who push the plot forward.
In the film and in the play, Anna is the least noticeably selfish of all the characters in Closer. Unlike Dan, Larry and, to an extent, even Alice, she is relatively successful in keeping up the appearance of decency. However, beneath the surface she is just as exclusively self-interested as the other characters. Anna is a willing slave to her sexual impulses. She is weak-willed to a fault and adept at cloaking her lack of restraint in morally acceptable terms.
In Act II, scene 9, she initially professes that she “fell in love” with Dan, casting herself as an innocent victim subject to a force beyond her control. However, she does not quarrel with Alice’s assertion that “you didn’t fall in love, you gave in to temptation,” nor her overall point that “there’s a moment, there’s always a moment; I can do this, I can give in to this, or I can resist it.” By refusing to counter Alice’s assertion that love is a choice, she tacitly acknowledges her agreement.
Marber’s decision to leave the aforementioned pivotal scene out of the film version of Closer fundamentally alters the power dynamic of the play in that it turns Alice into a passive character. Act II, scene 9 shows that Alice is as ruthless and manipulative as the other three. With the possible exception of her interaction with Larry in the strip club, this is the one time Alice goes on the offensive.
One cannot completely dismiss the power Alice holds over Larry, albeit temporarily, in their strip club encounter. Still, this power she wields is of a sexual nature; it is a kind of power that women possess in so many stories that it does not even have much of an impact. If anything, in a vacuum, it implies desperation. Also, the fact that she does end up sleeping with Larry makes it appear as if he has triumphed. The play shows a calculating aspect of Alice’s character that is absent from the film in its omission.
The film version lacks the important symbolic moment in the aforementioned scene where Alice takes back the negatives of the photos that Anna took of her in Act I, scene 3. The simple action of Alice taking back the negatives from Anna has significant implications on the power dynamic of the play. Marber, on several occasions, imbues photography with heavy thematic significance. Also in Act I, scene 2, in reference to Anna taking a picture of Dan, Alice asks: “Did you steal his soul?” Although the former is obviously intended as an offhand joke, an inconsequential bit of banter, it is reasonable to conclude that Marber would not have put it in the text if it were devoid of meaning.
A line in Act I, scene 4 provides proper context for understanding why Alice’s reclaiming of the negatives is so significant. Larry asks Alice for her opinion on photography at the exhibition and Alice responds: “It’s a lie. It’s a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully… the people in the photos are sad and alone but the pictures make the world seem beautiful… Everyone loves a big fat lie.” Alice is clearly resentful about the fact that Anna has used her image as a form of deceit, communicating a feeling that was not genuine for rich folk to gawk at. She feels like Anna has co-opted her image and her identity to make a false artistic statement. Ironically, art and the pretension associated with it fits perfectly with Alice’s cynical worldview. She is enraged when someone else uses her image to tell a lie because it usurps her power, but she does not hesitate to use her body as a form of power as a stripper. When Larry accuses Alice of dishonestly, she claims that “lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off.” The hypocrisy in this statement represents a fundamental inconsistency in her character. Alice condemns others for their dishonesty (Dan when he breaks up with her, Anna when she takes her picture), yet she is perfectly willing to lie and manipulate for her own selfish ends.
The film version of Closer does not capture Alice’s manipulative nature because it leaves out the scene where it truly comes to the forefront. Act II, scene 9 is the one time in the play that Alice drives the narrative. By tricking Anna and Larry into meeting and then confronting the former herself in an attempt to shatter her defenses and drive her back to her former partner so she can have Dan back, Alice proves that she is more than a little girl susceptible to being used as a pawn. The scene establishes her as a strong-willed entity of her own, willing and able to ruin Anna and Dan’s relationship for her own benefit. Furthermore, in taking back the negatives from Anna, Alice reclaims her individuality and symbolically asserts authority over her own life.
By removing Act II, scene 9 from the film version of Closer, Marber robs the female characters of their complexity and obscures their motivations. The scene where Larry confronts Anna about her infidelity implies her selfish willingness to give into lust, but it is only in her later meeting with Alice that she truly reveals this element of her character. Similarly, the strip club scene suggests that Alice is more than a needy little girl, but she is not given the opportunity to truly express her individuality. Her ultimate decision to leave Dan seems abrupt and does not make sense in the film devoid of the proper context provided by Act II, scene 9. The decision is not believable because the viewer has not seen evidence of her strong will and merciless individuality. As a result of all this, Alice and Anna are not nearly as interesting and fully realized in the film as they are in the play.
As the play progresses, the scales shift in favor of different characters, but it is clear that all of them are doomed to a life of unhappiness by their unwillingness or inability to comprehend human relationships and their inability to see outside themselves. True empathy is a foreign concept to them. Ironically, their inability to care for one another is what dooms them to a state of miserable isolation.
Although the film version of Closer is quite similar to the play, one cut scene has a major impact. Alice and Anna are affected the most by this change. Indeed, the fundamental natures of their personalities are obscured, if not completely altered. By the end of the play, in large part due to Act II, scene 9, the reader is as aware of the women’s moral flaws and lapses as those of the men. In the film, due to the absence of this key scene, the men come across as the primary aggressors and, consequently, the ones who push the plot forward.
In the film and in the play, Anna is the least noticeably selfish of all the characters in Closer. Unlike Dan, Larry and, to an extent, even Alice, she is relatively successful in keeping up the appearance of decency. However, beneath the surface she is just as exclusively self-interested as the other characters. Anna is a willing slave to her sexual impulses. She is weak-willed to a fault and adept at cloaking her lack of restraint in morally acceptable terms.
In Act II, scene 9, she initially professes that she “fell in love” with Dan, casting herself as an innocent victim subject to a force beyond her control. However, she does not quarrel with Alice’s assertion that “you didn’t fall in love, you gave in to temptation,” nor her overall point that “there’s a moment, there’s always a moment; I can do this, I can give in to this, or I can resist it.” By refusing to counter Alice’s assertion that love is a choice, she tacitly acknowledges her agreement.
Marber’s decision to leave the aforementioned pivotal scene out of the film version of Closer fundamentally alters the power dynamic of the play in that it turns Alice into a passive character. Act II, scene 9 shows that Alice is as ruthless and manipulative as the other three. With the possible exception of her interaction with Larry in the strip club, this is the one time Alice goes on the offensive.
One cannot completely dismiss the power Alice holds over Larry, albeit temporarily, in their strip club encounter. Still, this power she wields is of a sexual nature; it is a kind of power that women possess in so many stories that it does not even have much of an impact. If anything, in a vacuum, it implies desperation. Also, the fact that she does end up sleeping with Larry makes it appear as if he has triumphed. The play shows a calculating aspect of Alice’s character that is absent from the film in its omission.
The film version lacks the important symbolic moment in the aforementioned scene where Alice takes back the negatives of the photos that Anna took of her in Act I, scene 3. The simple action of Alice taking back the negatives from Anna has significant implications on the power dynamic of the play. Marber, on several occasions, imbues photography with heavy thematic significance. Also in Act I, scene 2, in reference to Anna taking a picture of Dan, Alice asks: “Did you steal his soul?” Although the former is obviously intended as an offhand joke, an inconsequential bit of banter, it is reasonable to conclude that Marber would not have put it in the text if it were devoid of meaning.
A line in Act I, scene 4 provides proper context for understanding why Alice’s reclaiming of the negatives is so significant. Larry asks Alice for her opinion on photography at the exhibition and Alice responds: “It’s a lie. It’s a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully… the people in the photos are sad and alone but the pictures make the world seem beautiful… Everyone loves a big fat lie.” Alice is clearly resentful about the fact that Anna has used her image as a form of deceit, communicating a feeling that was not genuine for rich folk to gawk at. She feels like Anna has co-opted her image and her identity to make a false artistic statement. Ironically, art and the pretension associated with it fits perfectly with Alice’s cynical worldview. She is enraged when someone else uses her image to tell a lie because it usurps her power, but she does not hesitate to use her body as a form of power as a stripper. When Larry accuses Alice of dishonestly, she claims that “lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off.” The hypocrisy in this statement represents a fundamental inconsistency in her character. Alice condemns others for their dishonesty (Dan when he breaks up with her, Anna when she takes her picture), yet she is perfectly willing to lie and manipulate for her own selfish ends.
The film version of Closer does not capture Alice’s manipulative nature because it leaves out the scene where it truly comes to the forefront. Act II, scene 9 is the one time in the play that Alice drives the narrative. By tricking Anna and Larry into meeting and then confronting the former herself in an attempt to shatter her defenses and drive her back to her former partner so she can have Dan back, Alice proves that she is more than a little girl susceptible to being used as a pawn. The scene establishes her as a strong-willed entity of her own, willing and able to ruin Anna and Dan’s relationship for her own benefit. Furthermore, in taking back the negatives from Anna, Alice reclaims her individuality and symbolically asserts authority over her own life.
By removing Act II, scene 9 from the film version of Closer, Marber robs the female characters of their complexity and obscures their motivations. The scene where Larry confronts Anna about her infidelity implies her selfish willingness to give into lust, but it is only in her later meeting with Alice that she truly reveals this element of her character. Similarly, the strip club scene suggests that Alice is more than a needy little girl, but she is not given the opportunity to truly express her individuality. Her ultimate decision to leave Dan seems abrupt and does not make sense in the film devoid of the proper context provided by Act II, scene 9. The decision is not believable because the viewer has not seen evidence of her strong will and merciless individuality. As a result of all this, Alice and Anna are not nearly as interesting and fully realized in the film as they are in the play.