I’ve heard a little something about Mike Nichols’ Closer (Columbia, 12.3), an eagerly awaited adaptation of Patrick Marber’s wonderfully written play about four romantically-linked Londoners in their 30s (Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Nathalie Portman, Cilve Owen). I personally can’t wait to see the Nichols film (Marber’s play reads like pure silk and seems to drill right into the heart of why lovers put each other through such hell), but it’s been seen and plays “a little cold.” I’ve also been told “it was supposed to be shown earlier but they’ve been tweaking it and tweaking it some more.” I didn’t want to hear this. “But the play is fantastic,” I said to the guy who passed this tidbit along. If you really liked the play, he answered, then you’re probably going to like the film.

New York Times reporter Sharon Waxman is said to be an admirer of I Heart Huckabees writer-director David O. Russell, but her portrait of him in Sunday’s Arts and Leisure section (9.19) didn’t do him any favors. A diary-like observation of what Russell went through during the Huckabees shoot, Waxman’s piece describes a guy who’s a little bit nuts, living on sheer moment-to-moment impulse and, the reader is led to believe, barely in control of himself. (The Chris Nolan headlock story alone will drive this impression home.) For what it’s worth, this is not the David O. Russell I’ve heard about for years and come to know very slightly. The view expressed during a luncheon for talent/press at the Sideways junket in Santa Barbara this morning is that Waxman’s piece was a friendly sandbagging.