Close (2004) Reviews

• Love and Alienation

  petespence742007-02-28

  A young man wanders around an unidentified German city at night. He casually steals a woman's handbag before attempting to break into an apartment. After cracking open his head with the window shutter, Anna, who lives in the apartment alone, silently allows the man in and puts him up for the night. They only exchange words the following morning when Anna asks the man his name and he tells her it's Zorro before departing. Anna attempts to go out but finds that she is unable to leave the apartment. We learn that she is the last remaining tenant in the block which is to be demolished imminently. The man returns that evening and an increasingly bizarre relationship of intimidation and co-dependency develops between them. Close is about a connection made between two desperate people. The man is nihilistic and aimless. He takes on any identity that comes his way and introduces himself by three different names during the course of the film. Anna is self-abusing and agoraphobic. Her frailty is at odds with the violence she is capable of delivering on the man. The dynamic that builds between the two characters in the confines of the doomed apartment is compelling to watch. The casting and performances of the two leads, Christoph Bach and Jule Bowe, are sublime, their good looks belying their inner turmoil. The film is superbly photographed, tightly and in grey tones, with each frame beautifully composed. Close draws on some of the finest in European film-making and is clearly influenced by the early works of Wim Wenders. This is a film where what is not said is more important than what is said, and where action speaks much louder than words. With this in mind Close is a truly rewarding experience. Peter Spence