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THE
CLOSET
4/10
Le
Placard : France 2001 : Francis Veber : 87 mins
After
Le Diner de Cons comes another breezily broad-brush French farce
from the Veber production line. Pignon (Daniel Auteuil), an anonymous
middle-manager at a condom factory, hears he’s about to be sacked. When
he confides in his neighbour, the older man comes up with an unlikely
scheme to keep Pignon in his job – if the bosses think Pignon is gay,
they won’t dare to sack him. Pignon, who’s actually straight (he’s divorced
with a teenage son) goes along with the deal. The resulting shenanigans
bring him into unexpectedly close contact with the racist, homophobic
office bully (Gerard Depardieu) who’s forced to re-examine his own presumptions
and prejudices.
Most
of the best laughs are generated early on – this isn’t a long film by
any means (and the end comes so suddenly it feels like an editing error)
but it does run out of gas around the half-way point as the convolutions
of plot and character become increasingly laboured. Veber’s TV-flat direction
means there’s nothing going on here apart from the script, which is essentially
sentimental, conventional and fairly predictable. He’s using some old-fashioned
‘controversial issues’ as a means to explore his usual comedic concerns
of family and work, and it’s hard to know what gay audiences will make
it all - especially since the one ‘proper’ gay character is kept so firmly
on the sidelines we never seem him outside of his flat.
11th
March 2002
(seen 26th February, Cineworld Milton Keynes)
For the new
version of this review click here
by Neil
Young
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