The truth is never sexy...

so it's not an easy sell. -- Derek Webb

This week I have been thinking about the movie Closer. Honestly, I have been thinking about the plot since I first viewed it in the theater right before Christmas break. I could not get the underlying symbols or all of the innuendos, realities, and deeper meanings out of my head. The main point of the film is truth, and it is both a harsh and accurate portrayal of the society we live in and how we often turn a blind eye to Truth looking for something more appealing, glittering, candy-coated.

Yesterday I was reading prose by Samuel Butler, and I stumbled upon this passage:

Truth herself has little or nothing to do in the affairs of the world, although all matters of the greatest weight and moment are pretended and done in her name, like a weak princess that has only the title, and falsehood all the power.

How many times do we hear ourselves saying something one minute, and then contradicting ourselves the next?

"Yes, I am a truthful person. My word is my oath."
"I would never think of telling anyone. You can trust me."
"If you come to me, you will always get the truth. Sometimes it won't be what you want to hear, but I have to remain truthful to myself."

We say things like this in moments that demand the most sincere truths, but how many times have we betrayed our words and told that deep secret, let a white lie slip from our mouths when we wanted an out, told someone a half-truth to appease them? These are the questions I asked myself when I sat down at my apartment this past weekend to watch Closer.

For me, the main theme of the movie is revealed in one scene between Alice and Larry. Alice says:

It's a lie. It's a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully, and all the glittering assholes who appreciate art say it's beautiful 'cause that's what they want to see. But the people in the photos are sad, and alone... But the pictures make the world seem beautiful, so... the exhibition is reassuring which makes it a lie, and everyone loves a big fat lie.

I see this as a microcosm of the world we live in. We surround ourselves with lies: lies that comfort us, make us feel like everything is okay, tell us to turn away from the moral decay of our society, glossing over it with a euphoric stain that gives us a feeling of complacency. We would rather see something that is fake and beautiful than something that is real and unattractive. The fact that this is how members of our society live (including me) impacted me in a way that I have yet to fully understand.

Ultimately, the characters in this film are lost on every level: lost in desire, lost in lies, lost in lust, lost in their definitions of self. Lost and fearful. They find themselves in relationships that are developed out of the society they live in. Relationships that appear beautiful from the outside, but are glossed over for comfort's sake. Relationships that are surface-superficial. Relationships that are selfish and void of any true love.

At one point in the film, Alice says:

Where is this "love"? I can't see it, I can't touch it. I can't feel it. I can hear it. I can hear some words, but I can't do anything with your easy words.

Both Alice and Dan are merely playing roles. If their relationship was built on truth, it would seep out of every pore of his body, every action. Instead he appeases her with sweet nothings, notions that have no true substance.

These characters are all confused. The line that separates truth from lies is completely blurred and out of focus. Dan is a walking contradiction, saying in one scene:

What's so great about the truth? Try lying for a change; it's the currency of the world.

And in another:

When I get back, please tell me the truth. Because I'm addicted to it. Because without it, we're animals. Trust me.

They don't know what they want, just as often times we do not know what we want. Towards the end of the movie, Alice asks: Why isn't love enough? And the answer to that question is another question. What is true love? The loves, the relationships in this film, are picture-perfect on the surface, but underneath they are eating away at the very souls of the characters. Truth, just like the concept of true love, is not always pretty. It may not speak the words you long to hear. It may not lead where you want it to. It may cause you pain. But, in the end, it is real, and if we are not real, what are we?

I want to be the kind of person that desires truth above all else, knowing that it often comes with consequences. The alternative is a life filled with shiny, beautiful things that are slowly rotting under the surface.