Customer Reviews

Close My Eyes [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One can view the brilliant and overlooked "Close My Eyes" on a number of levels. One could look at it as the story of an incestuous affair, the pain and despair of unquenched passion, the shattering of taboos, or the story of an unfulfilled woman searching for something about which to be passionate. Each level enriches and deepens the message of the other and creates a thought-provoking film of fiery intensity.

The film is a study in contrasts and opposing forces: Alan Rickman's controlled, restrained performance is in total contrast to the fiery passion of the two lovers and the film's direct confrontation with taboos (incest, AIDS, open passion itself)slams against polite society's prevailing opinions. The film dares us to face what is difficult and deal with it in an open and honest way no matter what the consequences, no matter what anyone thinks.

The film's solemn conclusion makes clear, however, that this shattering of taboos (what we are not supposed to openly discuss) is no easy accomplishment and involves the possibility of a breakdown in society or "the end of the world." But, the risk is worth it so that nothing is left hidden, so that all is out in the open, on the table, for discussion and acceptance. "Close My Eyes" is a powerhouse of passionate, riveting acting, Merchant and Ivory like cinematography, and incisive, perceptive writing.

A deeply disturbing film about an obsessive, destructive affair between a brother & sister at the end of the twentieth century. Saskia Reeves gives a powerful, deeply moving performance as the sister who is unable to resist the desire she feels for her brother. Rickman is, as always, brilliant. The film is especially interesting for its use of colour--lurid & grotesque one moment; lyrical & pastoral the next. The final shot of the film is quietly apocalyptic & elevates the story beyond the specificities of the affair. An important, often-overlooked film from fin-de-siecle Britain.

Close My Eyes is a mild and genteel examination of sibling incest amid the London yuppie set and against the backdrop of riverside redevelopment along the Thames. Natalie Gillespie (Saskia Reeves) is an unhappy woman of working class roots. We know this from a quick moving opening sequence of brief scenes that covers five years of her dissatisfied love relationships whining to her ambitious sexy brother, Richard, who she is distanced in age and personality. Richard Gillespie (Clive Owens), is a studly young architect, outgoing unlike his sullen sister, and able to successfully pursue his intellectual and creative pursuits. After a shared late night kiss, reality was quickly passed over as simply cuddling until Natalie rekindles her relationship with the long absent brother dearest.

Again bored, and with a new husband, Sinclair Bryant (Alan Rickman), a financial wiz who is pompous, condescending of his wife, and wealthy from family money, Natalie and Richard cross the line of social taboos with a torrid sexual affair. Richard's distraction with his sister becomes obsession while she is simply using him for excitement against a vacuous social schedule with unsuspecting Sinclair. The danger of forbidden fruit and illegal sexual thrill drives the couple to meet under the nose of Natalie's cuckold husband. Inept Sinclair is faithful to his wife and his work routine. A chatterbox of politeness, Sinclair's privileged upbring, beautiful homes, and class distance him from Natalie's insecurities. To make up for her shortcomings, she manipulates the game through her little brother, whose confidence is eroding under the spell of his sister's vacillation and sexual control.

Superior performances by Alan Rickman (Truly, Deeply, Madly; An Awfully Big Adventure) in easily one of his most sympathetic roles grounds the erotic performance of Clive Owen (Closer, Croupier), who is naked for extensive portions of the movie. They surround Saskia Reeve's performance with sufficient testosterone to overshadow the shortcomings of the secondary story line of Richard's boss who is dying of AIDS. Although meant to have social relevance, incest and AIDS seem an unlikely pairing.

Perhaps it is the notion of the unspoken pariah status of its victims, or the rightness or wrongness of the sibling's actions that is never examined in depth which makes the film unsuccessful and somewhat dated. It is a weakness surrounding what motivates Natalie's disenchantment with her perfect situation, or why Richard is so drawn to his older sister that the audience is left to ponder. Unlike a Tennessee Williams story of forbidden excesses, Close My Eyes becomes an exercise in the boredom of river front living by a menage of shallow characters.

Ever since I saw this film when I was 18, I've been haunted by images from it. While the dialogue does not move as easily as you might hope, I've rarely seen a movie that deals with the complexities of love in a more interesting way. If you enjoy the film version of the Unbearable Lightness of Being, you might enjoy this. Clive Owen, Saskia Reeves and Alan Rickman are all so brooding and intense... I've never seen any of them in a role with more sexual tension.

I watched this with a strange fascination, unable to turn away but sure wanting to. I never would have seen it if it didn't have Clive Owen in it, but I really think Saskia Reeves was great too, and would love to see more of her work. I feel that Natalie (Reeves) was an unhappy person in general and her brother happened to be handy and easily manipulated into their affair. When she decides to move on Richard (Owen) is having none of it. Sinclair (Alan Rickman) is oblivious at first, but comes across quite ominus when he becomes aware what is going on. Due to the content it is DEFINITELY not recommended for kids, but if you can remember it's only a movie and they are not real brother and sister, it's a really good movie.

cdset said "The film is a study in contrasts and opposing forces: Alan Rickman's controlled, restrained performance is in total contrast to the fiery passion of the two lovers and the film's direct confrontation with taboos (incest, AIDS, open passion itself)slams against polite society's prevailing opinions."
Good point there. The woman seduces her player type brother... who is all over her like a rash. But in the sack with her older husband Alan Rickman she is doing all the work so to speak ... she is on top of him. No fireworks there.
The brother disapproves of her new middle class lifestyle and insinuates that her husband is dominating her, squashing her true personality. BUT when the husband works out she is having an affair, the husband gets hot. The wife decides to drop brother,now hubby is making an effort. I feel that top Billing should have gone to Clive Owen as he gets much much more screen time than Alan Rickman. Owen acted his part very well. It sort of hints at a happy ending but the woman must be some kind of kook having sex with her own brother. Will hubby ever trust her again.Will she stray again.
I found it amusing that they track down Hubby on a Saturday to see if he is really at work and when he isn't they think that he is having an affair... he is innocently stuffing his face at a local cafe. Also the fight between brother and sister at the end was amusing.

Very compelling if not entirely convincing. One thread running through this film is a metaphorical mumble on the classical versus the modern, but I think the three main characters are sketched a little too lightly to support the director's weighty intentions. The result plays rather like two different movies running simultaneously. But this work is definitely worth a couple of hours of your time. Saskia Reeves is just dazzling as the bossy sister who's as much prey to her own impulses as is her weak younger brother. Pay very close attention to the opening few seconds in which we see a group of old people (the classical) and a group of punk rockers (the modern), with a bossy little girl connecting the two groups. The whole movie is summarized in this one short scene. Director Poliakoff does have a vision, even if it was perhaps a little blurred when he tried to marry the movie's two main themes. I watch this film occasionally to see the excellent work by Reeves, Owen and Rickman, and for the early 1990s London I lived in when this unique movie was made.

Although the subject matter and full nudity may be offensive to some, I found "Close My Eyes" to be very well done. Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves sizzle as a brother and sister who can't keep their hands off of each other. The crowning jewel is Alan Rickman's portrayal of the husband who knows, yet wishes he didn't. A serious movie, but with lots of humor. Toward the end, when Owen and Reeves straggle back to the party after their fight, sit at the table, and Sinclair (Rickman) sits between them and declares the party to be over, is perfect.

Very interesting film on a taboo topic. Intense and well acted.

A curiously detached film about a discontented woman (Saskia Reeves) who derails her brother's (Clive Owen) life by seducing him, and how their roles gradually reverse as the affair proceeds. Overly reliant on close-ups and flattened out by amateurish lighting, the film hints at much but delivers very little. There is scant chemistry between the three main characters, and even less plausible dynamic. Rickman, the nominal lead, does not appear until a third of the way along and gives a performance as extraneous as the role itself. It is as if he, and his character, wandered in from somewhere else. Reeves, on whose character the plot hinges, fairs little better. Alternating between sullen and enigmatic, she struggles to make Natalie believable but in the end is defeated by the simple fact that the role is as unsympathetic as it is impenetrable. Aside from taking off her clothes, or staring ambiguously into space, she is given nothing by which to make the character comprehensible. Until far too late, dialogue in this film confines itself to the elliptical and/or banal. The only sympathy is generated by Clive Owen, who manages to transcend the shortcomings of the script and make Richard the only operative, credible character. Ironically, for a film concerned with passion and its compulsive, destructive aspects, where it does succeed is in its secondary storyline: that involving Richard's job as a civil planner, and the people with whom he works. However subsidiary these scenes, they are as plausible and deft as the rest are laborious and annoying. What a pity there weren't more of them. See it if you're a Clive Owen fan, or want glimpses of London's construction-boom skyline. Otherwise, keep dialling.