Closer?

Do you feel that when you see a movie and you don't "get" it, that it is

a) your fault, you are not that smart

or

b) the movie's fault, it is not that good.

Usually I feel a), but after seeing Closer, I feel more like b).

The movie, from 2004, is about Alice and Dan, a couple in London, and their encounters and relationships with Anna and Larry. Briefly, Alice and Dan are living together when Dan meets Anna, with whom he becomes obsessed. By a plot quirk, he introduces Anna to Larry, and those two become lovers. But Dan continues to stalk Anna, and eventually convinces her to start a relationship with him. Havoc ensues.

As my husband pointed out, the movie sucks because both the guys are jerks, who treat the women as possessions to fight over. But I realized that the women are the ones who make the final decisions in the relationships, although they aren't necessarily happy.

But I wonder, why did Anna do what she did in the end? Why did Alice make her decision? Was Larry lying to Dan about his relationship to Alice? Does my not knowing the answers to these questions mean that I am obtuse or that the movie was poor? I am not sure.

I will point out that we watched the whole thing, even though we said throughout the movie that it wasn't that good..... how bad can a movie be with four beautiful people in it? It had Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, and Clive Owen. They are all so beautiful and enjoyable to watch that I wonder if that didn't make the movie more palatable.