The Closer is a light-hearted short film with a (relatively) star-studded cast by first-time director Jon Polansky. Steve (Ryan Matthew), an affable but inept bachelor, finds his life changed appreciably for the better when he begins to use the services of the eponymous Closer (Baywatch’s David Chocachi) a man who, when summoned like a Genie with a cell phone, will magically appear and ‘close the deal’, be it getting the husky, hirsute Steve a disproportionately hot girl (Kristy Swanson) or a promotion at work. When Steve passes the magic phone number on to his equally downtrodden friend Jimmy (David Goryl), though, he ends up using The Closer to fix an awkward situation of his own, with predictably disastrous results.
A punchline piece, “The Closer” is a breezy short based around an amusing idea that would have benefitted greatly from snappier dialogue and a soundtrack that didn’t revert so readily to trite guitar riffs and sound effects that telegraph the action like an old Bugs Bunny cartoon.
