December Movies

Closer

A tale of tormented love. Law stars as Dan, a tortured writer who betrays his girlfriend Alice (Portman) with Anna (Roberts), who will soon become the girlfriend of Larry, played by Owen. Based on Marber's stage play of the same name (in which Owen played the role of Dan), ''Closer'' is ''unusual in that it has huge time jumps,'' says Nichols, whose last stage-to-screen adaptation, HBO's ''Angels in America,'' recently racked up 21 Emmy nominations. ''It's all beautiful beginnings and miserable endings, somewhat like the way you experience your own adventures in love as you look back.'' While all four cast members said yes to Nichols immediately—-''If he asked me to pick up his dog's poop for a year, I would do it,'' says Portman--there was some concern about the darkness of the material. ''On the surface, it was a piece that really depressed me,'' says Roberts, who inherited the role from Cate Blanchett after Blanchett became pregnant. ''It's about deception and confusion, and I thought, 'People just don't act like this.' But you get in there, and it [becomes] something that you make very human, so it's not just these grand, horrible, bad things that people do. It's more painful than that.''

Embracing the spirit of the stage version, the cast gathered in New York for two weeks of rehearsal before heading off to London to begin filming. "We spent hours and hours talking," says Portman. ''I remember Julia saying it was like school.'' Complete with reading material: Roberts and Nichols both handed out favorite books, with Nichols contributing Alessandro Baricco's Silk and Roberts suggesting Jeanette Winterson's ''The Passion.'' "They were tales of passionate love, because [the movie] is all about that," Portman continues. ''There's this nastiness [to the film], but the deepest part is the passion when people feel they have no choice.'' WHAT’S AT STAKE Sony is looking for a Best Picture contender--something the studio hasn't had in at least four years (remember ''Erin Brockovich''?). (Dec. 3)

Synergy

What was the partial inspiration for Weitz's office-politics tale about a middle-aged middle manager (Quaid) whose new 26-year-old boss (''That '70s Show'''s Grace) begins dating his teenage daughter (Johansson)? A 1995 sociological tract called ''Jihad vs. McWorld.'' ''The premise was that there are forces that threaten open society,'' says Weitz. ''One of them was ethnic factionalization, and the other one was the idea that capitalism equals democracy.''

Did we mention this is a comedy?

Despite its academic ancestry, ''Synergy'' aims for the same droll humor as Weitz's Oscar-nominated ''About a Boy'' (which he codirected with brother Chris). For Quaid's Dan Foreman, the comedy springs from pain. ''He's just trying to maintain an even strain and swallow what's been handed to him," says the actor. ''Topher has my job, he's in my office, and now he's with my daughter. It's just too much for a man to take.''

Weitz took care to make sure the audience's allegiance won't be too firmly planted in one camp. ''I hope your heart goes out to both of them,'' he says. Confirms Grace: ''It's not like ''Changing Lanes,'' where you feel like this guy's the good guy and then there's the other guy. You feel for both of these guys.''

Grace---who's been earning small parts in big films like ''Mona Lisa Smile'' and ''Ocean's Eleven''--read four times for the role and convinced Weitz that his upbringing perfectly complemented the film's corporate setting. ''I'm from Connecticut, my father's a businessman,'' he says. "I said to Paul, 'My second language is how to talk to people in California. My first language is the way the script is written.''' Once cast, he found himself appearing opposite two award-winning costars. ''It's a huge break for me,'' Grace says. ''The first day of rehearsal, it was me, Scarlett, and Dennis. We were all standing in front of Paul's office, and I go, 'One of these things is not like the other...''' WHAT’S AT STAKE Grace's shot to prove he's got big-screen chops. (Dec. 29)

The Life Aquatic

Anderson, director of the geek-chic comedies ''Bottle Rocket,'' ''Rushmore,'' and ''The Royal Tenenbaums,'' has never had an easy time boiling his movies down to a quick, simple pitch: ''What I do is sort of the opposite of that,'' he deadpans. ''Unboiling.'' When it comes to his latest film, he's more adrift than ever. Basically, it's the story of a Jacques Cousteau-esque oceanographer/filmmaker named Steve Zissou (Murray, in his tragicomic wheelhouse), who is struggling to finish his latest underwater-exploration documentary. Along for the ride are Wilson, playing a pilot for Air Kentucky; Blanchett, as a reporter working on a profile of Zissou; Huston, as Zissou's dissatisfied wife; Goldblum, as his pompous rival; and Dafoe, as his loyal German crewmate, Klaus. So, yeah--it's that kind of movie.

Shot mainly in Italy with a large international cast, Aquatic is by far Anderson's most complicated project to date. Among the many logistical challenges, he had to retrofit a World War II warship into Zissou's research vessel, the ''Belafonte,'' and, with the help of animator Henry Selick (''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas''), create an entire world of not-quite-real sea creatures, like the jaguar shark and the sugar crab. And, of course, he had to shoot on the ocean, which for a guy whose films have all been fairly small-scale, landlocked affairs was "completely chaotic and wild."

Dafoe says the adventure of making the film ultimately helped to feed the story. "The first day, we had rough seas and I'd say about 99 percent of the people got really ill," he says. "But it's a bonding experience, you know, to be puking with your costars over the side of a boat." We'll take his word for it. WHAT’S AT STAKE Murray-philes think the actor's due for an Oscar, but a quirky comedy may line him up more for a Golden Globe than a golden boy. (Dec. 10)