Question: Is there a connection or special meaning when Dan asks 'Alice' during their last fight who she really is, and 'Alice' answers him "I'm nobody," and the fact that she is hiding her true identity as Jane Jones?
Answer: Anna says that Alice has "had quite a life" (after she read Dan's book that was based on Alice). Presumably Alice has been through difficult situations: abuse, neglect, etc. She considers herself a "nobody" and enjoys lying as a form of control. Which is why she never told Dan her real name, or everything about herself. She could never trust anybody completely. She also says "I'm the one who leaves." She prefers to leave men before they can leave her.
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: Did Alice tell Dan the truth at the end? Did she really stop loving him that moment and for what? It wasn't the fact he played her, not telling that she new, because she told him it was over before he told her he knew.
Answer: Earlier in the movie, Alice said, "I'm the one who leaves. I'm supposed to leave you. I'm the one who leaves." To me, this implies that she likes to control relationships. Dan has begun asking questions about Larry. She realises that he will not leave the issue alone. Even though he insists that the truth does not matter to him, he will not stop questioning her. Therefore, she ends the relationship before *he* can possibly end it someday. She wants to leave him before he can possibly change his mind and leave her. Over time, her encounter with Larry might have bothered him more and more.
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: 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: Before Dan and Alice left for Anna's show, why didn't Dan want Alice to travel with him after the show? I know he wanted to go and talk to Anna, but since he almost gets into a car and then suddenly changes his mind, it seemed like he had just then decided to go and try to talk to Anna.
Answer: Before Anna's show, they were not arguing about Dan and Alice leaving the show together - they were arguing because Dan was travelling straight after the show and staying somewhere else overnight to be at his father's funeral. Alice wanted to go to the funeral with him but Dan said he wanted to be alone. He looked like he was almost getting into a car because he was waiting until Alice's car was out of sight so she would not see him when he went back inside to speak to Anna.
Question: Is there a symbolic reason why Alice and Anna are both American? Or was it just a coincidence with the choice of actresses?
Answer: I think it mostly has to do with the casting of Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts. In the original play, there's no mention of Alice or Anna being American.
Answer: This is not an official answer, but my interpretation is that them both being American makes them interchangeable, in a way. Whether Dan or Larry is involved with Alice or Anna, both men have issues that cannot be totally helped by a relationship with either woman. Although, Larry and Anna only spent a night together.
Answer: It might be simple coincidence. According to some online searches, the role of Anna was almost played by Cate Blanchett, then Nicole Kidman. Both of them are Australian, so I don't think it was intentional for both women to be American.
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.
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: 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.
Question: *spoilers* I read that in the play, Alice is hit by a car and killed. At the end of the movie, we see her walking down a street, and she keeps walking as a light changes to a red hand sign. Is this supposed to mean that she also gets hit by a car in this version, but the movie ends and doesn't show her being hit?
Answer: I think you are correct; that's what is implied by the red light at the crosswalk. A note on that same scene... I couldn't figure out why all the other pedestrians are looking at her, before she gets to the crosswalk.
Answer: It's left for your interpretation.
Question: I know this movie was based on a Broadway play. Does anyone know how it is revealed in the play what Alice's real name is, and also how Dan realizes that "Alice Ayers" was a fake name? Both of these facts are revealed in the movie without dialogue, so I was wondering what the play was like.
Answer: The play ends quite differently from the film. Larry and Anna meet in the park with the plaques - they are no longer together, they are each dating someone new. Larry points out the "Alice Ayers" plaque to Anna, who reads it out loud. Larry notes how she made up everything about herself. Anna says she is meeting Dan there, he asked to see her. When Dan arrives, with a suitcase, Larry leaves. Dan says the police in New York called to tell him "Jane Jones" had died, and he learns that was Alice's real name. He is on his way to New York. The End.
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.
Question: Were the cigarettes in the film real or fake (prop, puff, or herbal)? I ask because I know that Natalie Portman was not a smoker before the making of this film started.
Answer: Actors are usually required to use movie prop cigarettes or herbal cigarettes that don't contain tobacco or nicotine. These usually contain marshmallow root, passion flower, cloves, or jasmine. While some actors might be smokers, prop cigarettes protect other actors and crew from second-hand smoke, especially during long filming sessions. There is debate about how much safer herbal cigarettes are compared to tobacco.
Question: How did Alice get her waitressing job? Would she need some sort of paperwork or license with her fake name?
Answer: "Alice," whose legal name was later revealed to be Jane Jones, had a valid passport. She could have used that to get the job and said she preferred being called "Alice." An employer is not going to discuss an employee's credentials with anyone. Being that she was an American, she may also have been working illegally and was paid "under the table," getting less money than a regular employee.
Answer: Along with RayWest's comment, I want to add that Alice probably had previous experience as a server due to her lifestyle as a wanderer. (It's an easy job to get in many places.) If an employer needed someone badly enough, especially someone with experience, they might agree to pay her under the table/illegally.
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.
Lummie ★
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.
At the strip club, Larry does *not* know that her name is legally Jane. He thinks her name is Alice. She is using a stage name at the club, and he wants to hear her say that her name is Alice. He refuses to accept "Jane" as the answer. He is waiting to hear "Alice."
But Jane actually was Alice's legal name. This is shown at the end of the movie, on her ID. Larry did not believe her when she told him.