Best movie of this year hands down!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Admirable film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I rented this because I think Stephen Poliakoff is one of Britain's best story tellers. Clive Owen and Alan Rickman are good actors for which Rickman gets acclaim and Owen doesn't. Considering that the talent here was massive, this film is crap.Those who enjoyed it might like to think of the rest of us as prudes. I've appreciated films which I found distressingly unpleasant (i.e. Dans ma peau/In My Skin). Yet I don't find incest distressing. It's something with which I've no personal or second-hand experience. I'm not convinced that it's inherently harmful, when consensual, so I'm not going to judge it.The truth is that Poliakoff fell flat on his bum with this one. Some of the dialogue is worse than I'd expect from a second-rate Lifetime movie. I didn't understand (or feel as though I gained an understanding of) any of the characters or their motivations. Owen and Rickman gave good performances. Reeves was uneven, perhaps due to her having the most idiotic lines of the film, a la Harlequin. The direction and editing weren't very good either. I wonder if Mr Poliakoff was working with severe time limitations and was actually more concerned about the (now complete) development of the docklands (into something that resembles suburban American concentrations of office buildings with, arguably, no character, like Southfield and Troy here in SE Michigan) than telling a story about such uninteresting people.Unless you're wanting to spend money to see every last inch of Clive Owen, surely available somewhere on the internet, there isn't anything here that isn't done much better elsewhere.

"Close My Eyes" deserves credit for its unexploitive treatment of a highly charged subject matter. On the other hand, I found it just a bit dramatically monotonous. However, it's worth seeing for its sensitivity and its good acting. Alan Rickman, in particular, is very interesting in what could have easily been a thankless supporting part. (**1/2)

I'm surprised this movie isn't rated higher - I can't think of anyone who's seen it who hasn't liked it. Women who see it are all mesmerised by Alan Rickman, who rather steals the show. For many women this was their first taste of Rickman, and it was love at first sight! He _is_ good, and he's cast in an interesting role (Saskia Reeves cheats on him when she has an affair with her brother, played by Clive Owen, who was probably more famous than Rickman at the time because he'd recently starred in a very successful TV drama series). The incest plot is treated very well - the script, acting and direction are excellent. The whole situation is set up so as not to shock, but to make us think, and I think the film succeeds.

The movie doesn´t start very interesting, the buildings and offices shown in the movie are very boring to me and I don´t think that the actors/actresses look extremely beautiful --- but the film itself is a real masterpiece. The relationship between the two protagonists could only end in a catastrophe, although some scenes want to make us believe the opposite. This movie shows us the real meaning of the so-called "falling in love": it means nothing but going crazy (but in a somehow lovely way) without thinking over the consequences. I like especially the scene in Richard´s flat when they give in to temptation. And when they sit on the floor and talk about public transport - that´s somehow really funny. In this scenes you can see how much sex means to men, it may change their whole personality and makes them vulnerable. I like the end of this movie very much. Especially Rickman´s words at the end (I can´t write them here because I have only seen the movie in German).