Skip to main content
BFI logo

Home

Film

Television

People

History

Education

Tours

Help

  search

Search

Screenonline banner
Closer (2000)
 

Synopsis

Warning: screenonline full synopses contain 'spoilers' which give away key plot points. Don't read on if you don't want to know the ending!

Annalise Rodgers is a 17 year old bleached-blonde lesbian from Newcastle. She lives with her mum in a caravan park and dreams of breaking away from Britain to become a successful psychologist in America.

The documentary uses a series of monologues and re-enactments to take us on a journey through Annalise's mind. Directly addressing the camera, she talks us through her sexual awakening, her experiences of life and her hopes and dreams for the future.

She explains that she has been approached by a film producer wanting to make a film (this film) about her; her first thought, she says, was that she was being chatted up.

Grim footage of Tyneside estates accompanied by a house music sound-track fold into a lengthy scene between Annalise and her mother, in which she re-enacts 'coming out' for the first time. This is followed by a club scene, leading into another re-enactment, this time of an intense sexual encounter with another girl. Time is ambiguous, shots are often repeated and the soundtrack sometimes includes Annalise's thoughts.

Annalise is positive about the future. She is determined to achieve her dream of becoming a psychologist in the US and having a huge studio with an aquarium in the wall and lots of children.