Factual error: When Clive Owen is chatting on the internet to who he thinks is Anna, you can see the URL in web browser. The domain used is "www.nopop." It's impossible for the domain to be missing its top-level suffix (eg. .com).
Suggested correction: It's entirely possible for "nopop" itself to be a top-level domain, although at the time this movie was made, it wouldn't have been in real life. There's nothing inherent to DNS or the internet that would make "www.nopop" not work as long as it was a valid, resolvable hostname on whatever network the character is using, especially if it was some kind of VPN or underground network for anonymous hookups.
There's a dot at the end of "www.nopop." Details matter.
Question: Is there a significance to Jane choosing Alice Ayer's name? As on the plaque she died to save 3 lives. Is this meant to draw another parallel comparison of her saving these 3 characters (Anna, Larry, Dan)?
Answer: A possible parallel is that she sensed a chance to "save" Dan from his life, which he seemed to be bored with at the time. Overall, though, she probably looked for a female name and chose one at random. She preferred keeping some secrets from Dan, never trusting him fully.
Answer: She chose the first name she remembered when Dan asks her name. She did not say her real name because she wants to be somebody else, possibly because Jane came from NY to escape a life she had there and wanted to reinvent herself.
The question is about why she chose that particular name, not why she is hiding her real name.
Question: Hopefully this is not a silly question. What is the meaning of the title "Closer"?
Answer: No such thing as a silly question. The title refers to the central theme of the film and the play upon which it is based: Knowing the truth doesn't bring us closer together. It is meant to be ironic, truth offers clarity but actually drives people further apart.
Continuity mistake: When Daniel is just about to leave Larry's office at the end of the film, Daniel is facing away from the door. In the next shot he is facing the other way. (01:25:55)
Suggested correction: No he's not.
Question: Two questions about the scene where Dan is talking to Larry online and pretending to be Anna. First, why did he want to set her up with someone if he wanted her? Also, how could he be sure that she would be at the aquarium at a certain time? I know that he knew she liked to go there, but how could he be certain that whatever guy he played the trick on would meet her there?
Answer: Dan did not know Anna would be there. This is revealed at the art exhibit when Anna tells Dan that she met Larry at the aquarium as well as their nickname for him - Cupid. He unwittingly created an obstacle for himself.
I think he had played the Internet prank/joke a few times before. He knew that Anna liked the aquarium, so if he chatted with multiple men on different days, there was a chance that Anna would actually be at the aquarium when a man arrived to meet her.
Answer: I think he set her up because he wanted to prank her for rejecting him. Just an unlucky fluke for the second part with them meeting up at the same time, I think. Or maybe 1pm is when she takes a break or gets off work at that time? Who knows. It happened, though.
Answer: My theory is that Dan was trying to create a bunch of sleazy, annoying encounters for Anna to deal with. As another comment says, he probably did this several times, knowing that she liked the aquarium. He thought she would finally give him a chance after dealing with those men from the chat rooms. But it backfired—he actually helped her meet a future husband.
Question: After leaving Larry for Dan, why did Anna break up with him and reunite with Larry?
Answer: I think it was because of the offer that Larry made to Anna. He promised that if they had sex one more time, he would leave her alone and never contact her again. The fact that he was willing to give her freedom, is what made her choose him. Dan was more "needy" and pushy, which is hypocritical, because he left Alice based on her being needy.
Question: How did Larry find out what club Alice/Jane works at? Did he just find her there by coincidence?
Answer: It appears so. Nothing else suggested he knew where she worked. More that he was just going to different clubs and drinking and came across the club Alice was working at.
I think he knew exactly where to find her. He's a doctor and often doctors are known to have that "God" complex. I think he wanted to gain control of his relationship with Anna. To win Anna back he had to manipulate all the players including Alice/ Jane. He probably researched her and found her. That's why he knew Alice/Jane was not her real name. He was low key stalking all of them, to get Anna back.
Question: Before they break up and Larry comes home, was Anna planning on leaving him that night and telling Larry the truth? Or did it just happen because of Larry's confession?
Answer: She was planning on leaving Larry. Notice how he questioned her about her appearance - she claimed to have had a bath, but was dressed again. She initially told him that she went out to buy milk. Then she explained that Dan had been at the house. Most likely, she got dressed because she was ready to leave their home in a hurry.
I think that Anna didn't know what she wanted.
Question: Why did Alice tell Larry her real name, but she never told Dan?
Answer: Probably because she knew Larry wouldn't believe her - would you believe someone as mysterious as Alice was actually called 'Jane Jones', especially when you think you know her name is actually Alice? Larry thought she was mocking him so it was safe to reveal this about herself, but her whole relationship with Dan was about keeping a part of her separate from him.
Answer: Every time she had pink hair, like in the beginning of the film and during her club scene, she was her true self. The other times were guilted facades of who she really was.
When they met, Alice had pink-reddish hair and lied about her name, after having seen the name in one of the tombstones at the cemetery.
Question: I don't understand the scene where Alice and Dan break up at the end, and why Alice says that she "would have" loved Dan forever. Did she do this because he tried to trick her into revealing that she slept with Larry, when he knew about it all along?
Answer: When Dan breaks it off with Alice as she cries she tells him the truth. She tells him that it's normally the other way. That she is the one that is supposed to break it off with him. So when they get back together she finally has her chance. Before she was the one that left broken. This time she knew she just wouldn't be. She would be able to walk away and not feel it. Alice doesn't seem like she truly needs anyone. And she lies about herself because she wants the control. Dan had the control over her.
She leaves Dan because she wants him to not care. For it to not be about his ego.
Answer: I think that 'Alice' is at odds with who she really is. Her identity crisis plays out in the way she constantly reinvents herself by changing her appearance. She can not sustain a real relationship with Dan, because she constantly role-plays. I think this is the significance of her lying about her real name. In a moment of truth with Larry, she reveals that she is "Plain Jane", implying that she can only feel special and lovable, and 'in love', when she is playing a role. Dan's narcissistic need to know whether or not she really slept with Larry prompted her regular pattern of breaking off all of her relationships when they get too real.
Answer: In a nutshell Alice broke up with Dan because she knew Dan wouldn't be able to get over the situation with her sleeping with Larry. The statement about loving him forever was more that she loved him but his insistency on knowing the real truth was never going to change. It didn't really have anything to do with tricking her as she had already revealed she didn't want to be with Dan. The fact that he had had to hear it from her probably confirmed her feelings he wouldn't be able to get past the affair.
