Closer (2004)

Drama directed and produced by Mike Nichols, based on a 1997 stage play by Patrick Marber. 

The story deals with the intersecting relationships of two men and two women. Clive Owen and Natalie Portman are both excellent at presenting complex, rounded characters. Jude Law just does his usual Jude Law thing. And Julia Roberts is oddly drippy and underwhelming with a character that’s barely there – to the extent that you have no idea why two men would be obsessed with her. 

It ends up a little overwrought, with lots of rather pompous statements about truth and honesty uttered by characters who are all over the place. You feel the writing tries too hard to be shocking and morally confrontational. As an account of intense human emotions it’s compelling but difficult to like.

Derailed (2005)

Engaging but in places extremely far-fetched thriller.

Clive Owen meets Jennifer Aniston on a train and they begin a passionate fling. In a hotel room, the pair are attacked by Vincent Cassel (who only seems to play baddies), who then blackmails Clive Owen for money in exchange for not telling his wife about the infidelity. So Clive has to spend his life's savings, put aside to care for his sick daughter...  

It’s an enjoyable twist-filled tale, even if it begins to stretch credibility in the final sections. Owen is always charming, and he is excellent with the limited material. Aniston is better than expected – or rather, at least she’s not merely reprising Rachel from Friends. 

On the downside there is a silly character played by rapper RZA, and Clive Owen’s wife played by Melissa George is sketchy and unconvincing.

Inside Man (2006)

Directed by Spike Lee, this is an unusual and original thriller focused on a hostage siege during a New York City bank robbery. 

Clive Owen masterminds the heist. Denzel Washington is the detective and hostage negotiator, who finds that the case is stranger than his usual tasks. Jodie Foster plays a mysterious power broker who tries to help the bank’s founder Christopher Plummer protect something in his safe deposit box. 

It’s edgy and dynamic, and also occasionally funny. 

The music by jazz musician and trumpeter Terence Blanchard is oddly jarring at times, but it works. 

The three leads are all at their best, although I would have liked more dialogue from Clive Owen.

Children of Men (2006)

Co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, this is a remarkable dystopian thriller adapted from a novel by P. D. James. 

It’s 2027 and the world has gone to ruin. For 18 years, humans have been infertile. When the youngest person dies, it’s a major news event. Meanwhile, Theo Faron (Clive Owen) finds himself looking after a girl (Clare-Hope Ashitey) who – miraculously – is pregnant. He attempts to transport her to safety amid anarchy and violent hostility. 

It’s a terrifying drama because it looks and feels so real. Maybe it’s the grim English locations or perhaps it’s the brilliant, deadpan script, but it’s utterly believable. Other details help – the old car that won’t start, or the pair of flip-flops Theo has to wear. The appalling treatment of immigrants doesn’t even seem like a prediction any more, after Donald Trump’s treatment of Mexicans and the UK Conservative government announcing plans to fly people off to Rwanda. 

Clive Owen – always excellent – is really at his best here. Michael Caine is superb as an ageing hippy drug dealer called Jasper. And Julianne Moore is great as Theo’s estranged wife, although I wish she was in the film for longer. 

It’s disturbing and thought-provoking, but with moments of humour too. A masterpiece.

Duplicity (2009)

Former CIA and MI6 secret agents Claire (Julia Roberts) and Ray (Clive Owen) work as corporate spies. They become romantically involved and decide to pair up as a team. The stakes are raised when they have the chance to earn themselves $35 million, but the problem is that they simply cannot trust each other. There are hints of The Thomas Crown Affair, but it’s less skilfully handled. 

It’s nearly an engaging comedy thriller, but the “funny” bits really aren’t funny enough. Also, there are so many bluffs and double-bluffs that it can be tricky to follow. Ultimately, the whole scam scenario is so unlikely that it’s difficult to believe. 

Owen and Roberts always appeal but they can’t really shine in such a self-consciously tricksy, disjointed narrative. In fact, the film’s flaws are built in from the very beginning: the characters have a deliberate coldness to indicate their professionalism and mutual distrust. But that coldness makes them – and their story – a lot harder to like. One solution would have been to spice up their encounters with a little more passion (which worked in The Thomas Crown Affair), but Duplicity, which has a “12” certificate, opts not to take that route. 

On the plus side, it’s refreshing to see a thriller that doesn’t include any guns or killing.

The International (2009)

Satisfyingly unformulaic thriller. 

Clive Owen and Naomi Watts play the cutely named investigators Salinger and Whitman, who try to bring down the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC). 

It’s fast-paced and very nicely shot, with a stylish take on locations in Berlin, Milan, New York and Istanbul. In the case of Istanbul, the exact same area – the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar – would later be used for a motorbike chase in Skyfall (2012). The most dramatic section is an extended shoot-out in the NYC Guggenheim Museum, painstakingly replicated just for this film. 

The script avoids cliché and it’s refreshing that the lead pair do not end up becoming a couple. Both in terms of their personal lives and the corruption their work exposes, there are no easy solutions offered. But the very existence of the film emphasises the immense, insidious power of global finance and the way banks drive the behaviour of governments and determine the outcome of global conflicts. 

Watts is always reliable, and impresses throughout. Owen, meanwhile, surprises with a blend of toughness and vulnerability that’s just right for this particular story.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

The sequel to Elizabeth is both trashier and more entertaining than that first film. Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush successfully reprise their roles as the queen and her spymaster. And again Shekhar Kapur directs, shooting several scenes from overhead for no apparent reason.

It’s very “loose” with the facts. Why make up events when the real story is so interesting? And if you do invent a new plot, make sure it works. You see an assassination attempt on the queen that was foiled because Anthony Babington (Eddie Redmayne) didn’t have bullets in his gun, but this failure is never explained. Had Walsingham removed the bullets? Was Babington just careless? In reality, he was just one of the plotters and he never pointed a gun at her. So they invented this plot strand only to leave it unresolved.

The other big flaw is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Rayleigh. His motivations are unclear. Is he there to impregnate the queen’s handmaiden (Bess Throckmorton, played by Abbie Cornish) or does he have some deep connection with the queen herself? Or, given his made-up importance in defeating the Spanish Armada, was it all “for England”? Again, bearing in mind that the truth has been embellished, the least they could have done is to make his character work. There’s a “Sunday night TV” quality about him, and I kept thinking of David Essex in some old programme or other.

These points aside, it’s an enjoyable romp. And Cate Blanchett is always worth watching.