The Closet (2001)

The Closet (2000)Cute, quaint, well done, and a French feel good comedy. This is nothing brilliant, but it's the equal of lots of American comedies in creating a situation that is filled with built-in laughs. And the leading man, Daniel Auteuil, is funny and sympathetic.The setting for this all is an office of the most preposterous kind--a condom factory. This is meant to be funnier than it is, actually, but it's a colorful backdrop to the opening salvo--our leading man is not the best accountant and he gets fired. Back home, where his life has left him and his son has stopped talking to him, his neighbor stops him from jumping off the balcony to his death. And concocts a simple plan to keep his job: pretend he is gay.The hook here is that by being openly gay the man would be able to claim he was fired by the gay bashers at the factory. This doesn't quite hold up, but the key basher is played with nice complexity by Gerard Depardieu, who himself begins to show some latent something or other. There is plenty of sympathy and warmth to go around here, and lots of appropriate laughs as you empathize with the main guy. Eventually, of course, people discover the ruse and that starts some new jokes. All in all enjoyable and fun, without a dull moment. And that's all you expect or need from this kind of movie.

This movie had some funny moments but I just couldn't get over how incredibly OFFENSIVE it is.Basically a man is going to lose his job so in order to keep it, he pretend to be gay b/c apparently he won't get fired if he's gay b/c people will feel like if they fire him, it will look like it's because he's gay and to sell it, he acts stereotypically gay meaning as flamboyant as possible. There are also a bunch of characters that look down on him for being gay in a joking manner only it's never funny.Hmmm... what if instead of gay, we used black instead. Would that be funny or would this movie now magically be deemed racist. Hmm. a man is about to lose his job so he decides to pull the race card and pretend that he's 1/2 black or something and then in order to pull it off, 'acts black' to seal the deal. Heck, we could have a black man pretend to be his Father and of course this would save his job b/c a minority can't be fired! It will look like he's being fired for being a minority! Throw in racial slurs because he has to overcome adversity just like in the real movie, the fake gay character was met with gay jokes and gay offensive slurs...and we have a movie! I wonder how that would go over yet this movie seems to be a hit. Interesting...

You know, if something makes you laugh as intended it succeeds. It is a great thing, especially if it avoids making you feel dirty afterwards.The basic story is only a device: wimpy guy pretends to be gay to save his job. This makes him fascinating to others including his estranged son.The framework provides opportunity for jokes and endearments — even a kitten. Even, my gosh, the visiting Japanese delegation bit. It is pleasant enough. But woven around that framework is a metastory about the wonder of the power of story. Here we have a complete loser, not merely ignored but belittled. A tiny story fragment is planted and around it grows all sorts of power fed by the situations brought by the people surrounding him. He is baffled, but like the rest of us has to go along. When he finally gets back to truth, he gets extra points because of the THAT story.Dancing around in the background is the ever trustworthy Depardieu who has his own story- trick played on him.This is delicate and deep, worthy of laughing at, a tiny story fragment planted in us around which we will build with what we bring.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

The whole film revolves around Daniel Auteuil who plays Francois Pignon (some may remember this as the name of the hapless individual in L'Emmedeur, also a man whose wife left him), a man who works for a condom manufacturer and whose wife has left him as she considers him very boring. He is also estranged from his teenage son who also considers him boring and too set in his ways. He is due for redundancy from his firm after 20 years service, but his next door neighbour (who is a homosexual cat lover) befriends him and shows him a way a way not to lose his job, by pretending to be gay. This is when the real fun starts with great moments from Gerard Depardieu as the homophobic bully from HR, who originally wants to hurt Francois but eventually begins to fall in love with him, as does his boss, his son and his wife (but it is too late for her).