The Closet (Le Placard) (2000) Daniel Auteuil, Gerard Depardieu, Thierry Lhermitte, Michele Laroque, Michel Aumont, Jean Rochefort, Alexandra Vandernoot, Stanislas. Written and directed by Francis Veber. 84 minutes. Rated R, 3.5 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo.net Archive reviews at http://reviews.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Edward+Johnson-Ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to ejohnsonott@prodigy.net or e-mail ejohnsonott-subscribe@onelist.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
This review will be shorter than normal, because there's not a lot to say about "The Closet," and that's just fine. Light as a soufflé, the subtitled French farce takes a simple premise and runs with it. Ten minutes after you leave the theater, you likely won't remember a thing about "The Closet," except that it gave you one big belly laugh, several chuckles and a lot of smiles.
The set up: After 20 years of faithful service at the rubber factory, François Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is about to be let go. The company has nothing against the man; he is simply so unmemorable that sacking him seems an easy way to cut costs. When Pignon tells new neighbor Belone (Michel Aumont) about his pending fate, the elderly fellow cooks up an idea: Doctor a photo to make it look as if Pignon is gay, then send it anonymously to his workplace. Once word spreads around the company, management will be afraid to fire him and open themselves to charges of bigotry.
So, despite being 100% heterosexual, Pignon comes out of the closet, and everything changes. Felix (Gerard Depardieu), a co-worker who bullied Pignon in the past, becomes fearful that he will fired for being homophobic and desperately tries to befriend the bewildered man. Other co-workers who dismissed Pignon as hopelessly bland now decide that it was all part of his cover. Pignon's sullen teenage son Franck (Stanislas Crevillen) decides that Dad is now interesting, and his supervisor, Mlle Bertrand (Michele Laroque) finds him intriguing as well. Meanwhile, Belone, who was once fired for being gay, savors the irony of the situation.
That's really all there is to it. As farces go, "The Closet" isn't ambitious. The film offers no grand statements, just a clever idea and exceptional cast. In a summer of cinematic disappointments, this modest offering is a cool drink of water.
© 2001 Ed Johnson-Ott
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