Marber uses direct, emotionally brutal and sexually explicit language. In scene three, when Dan and Larry are instant messaging on an adult website, Marber uses crude and up-to-date terminology and dialogue typical of such a communication.
In a review of the Broadway run in New York magazine, John Simon writes,
"Marber tells his story in short, staccato scenes in which the unsaid talks as loudly as the said. The dialogue is almost entirely stichomythic, the occasional speech still not much longer than a few lines. There are frequent pauses, but not of the Pinteresque variety—more like skipped heartbeats... Closer does not merely hold your attention; it burrows into you."
According to Matt Wolf, "the animalistic pulse of the play [is] reflected in its often scabrous language".[3]
