Closer is a 2004 American romantic drama directed and produced by Mike Nichols and written by Patrick Marber, based on his award-winning 1997 play. It stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen. The film, like the play on which it is based, has been seen by some as a modern and tragic version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte's 1790 opera Così fan tutte, with references to the opera in both the plot and the soundtrack. Owen starred in the play as Dan, the role played by Law in the film.