Rating: 
Summary: Une Farce par excellence!
Review: "Le Placard" (The Closet), from the creators of the highly acclaimed "Dinner Game", is a perfect balance of high farce and social voyeurism delivered with true Gallic pathos. Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu are perfectly cast in this terrifically funny look into the change in the life of a boring man who becomes the office celebrity after "coming out". The film starts with Francois Pignon (Auteuil) facing dismissal from his job. His workmates, his estranged wife and son all ignore him and he is on the verge of ending it all when a new neighbor (Michel Aumont) fortuitously arrives on the scene and tries to save Pignon. He hatches a plan to "expose" the straight Pignon to his workmates in order to engender sympathy and put fear into the minds of those who would fire him. Depardieu is brilliant as the homophobic personnel manager, Santini, who finds himself having to bow and scrape to the now- highly-esteemed Pignon. Unbeknownst to Santini, he has been set up. The office rumour mill is in overdrive and one cannot help but observe the obvious social references of this beautifully constructed little gem. I got more belly laughs from this film than any I've seen in years and whilst it's not exactly Ibsen, it belongs on any "must see" list.
Rating:
Summary: The politics of diversity
Review: "The Closet" is a delightful French satire on the politics of political correctness. With the assistance of a gay neighbour, divorced, dejected and downtrodden accountant Francois Pignon dishonestly "outs" himself in a desperate attempt to save his job at the condom factory. As his newly-adopted sexuality transforms his professional and personal life, Pignon finds that being different in today's pro-diversity culture is no longer a disadvantage - it can actually make you cool. The wonderfully versatile Daniel Auteuil is terrific as Pignon, as is Gerard Dépardieu as the confused oaf Santini. Writer/director Francis Veber's neat little screenplay pushes the concept about as far as it will go (but thankfully no further), escalating the implications of Pignon's ruse without ever resorting to slapstick histrionics. He also finds a nicely emotional through-line in a subplot about Pignon's relationship with his son. Overall, this is a warm, intelligent original comedy which will have you thinking and laughing at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Une Farce par excellence!
Review: "Le Placard" (The Closet), from the creators of the highly acclaimed "Dinner Game", is a perfect balance of high farce and social voyeurism delivered with true Gallic pathos. Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu are perfectly cast in this terrifically funny look into the change in the life of a boring man who becomes the office celebrity after "coming out". The film starts with Francois Pignon (Auteuil) facing dismissal from his job. His workmates, his estranged wife and son all ignore him and he is on the verge of ending it all when a new neighbor (Michel Aumont) fortuitously arrives on the scene and tries to save Pignon. He hatches a plan to "expose" the straight Pignon to his workmates in order to engender sympathy and put fear into the minds of those who would fire him. Depardieu is brilliant as the homophobic personnel manager, Santini, who finds himself having to bow and scrape to the now- highly-esteemed Pignon. Unbeknownst to Santini, he has been set up. The office rumour mill is in overdrive and one cannot help but observe the obvious social references of this beautifully constructed little gem. I got more belly laughs from this film than any I've seen in years and whilst it's not exactly Ibsen, it belongs on any "must see" list.
Rating: 
Summary: Comes on strong but finishes weak.
Review: A rubber company that specializes in manufacturing condoms is downsizing, and Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is about to be laid off. Pignon is an extremely ordinary and dull person, and no one can think of a good reason to keep him on. Also, he is still in love with his ex-wife and tries to be a father to his estranged son, but neither of them return his affection. Getting his pink slip sends Pignon into a short-lived depression, when his new neighbor hatches a scheme to help Pignon keep his job. Belone, the neighbor, doctors some photos of men in a gay bar--putting Pignon's face on one of the men--and sends them in an anonymous envelope to his employer. He tells Pignon to not even worry about acting gay; just stay the same, he says, and everyone around you will alter *their* behavior. The main objective is, of course, to scare a condom company out of firing a gay man, and as expected, all manner of hilarity ensues.
Director and screenwriter Francis Veber's "The Closet" rides the wave of international success stirred by his 1998 film "The Dinner Game" without providing as well-structured or as consistent a story. The first half of the film is every bit as funny as the setup to "The Dinner Game," supplying nearly a dozen fascinating characters (all wonderfully acted by a superb ensemble cast), and promising much. Part of concept of the film deals with shifting the focus from Pignon to the people around him. Unfortunately, in an 80-minute film, Veber is unable to complete even a minimal story arc for each character--which leaves the film feeling somewhat disjointed in the end.
Perhaps it is to Veber's detriment, in a film like this, that he writes such consistently fascinating characters; if the characters were less intriguing, the audience would not protest when one of them disappeared or suddenly and inexplicably turned into a simple caricature. For example, Gerard Depardieu plays Santini, an office homophobe who must begin to "play nice" with Pignon or risk losing his own job. For a while, this relationship promises the sort of intense character interaction at which Veber excels. Soon, however, Santini undergoes a comic but inexplicable personality change and is marginalized from the film. Santini's role in the story is replaced by a smattering of vignettes which show other office workers being alternately cruel and kind toward Pignon.
Additionally, like Veber's previous film, "The Closet" obtains its comic premise from a social injustice. This film, however, is slightly more blatant in its message-oriented nature. In message films, an audience often has to endure forced dialogue--sometimes even entire forced scenes--which are not organic to the piece. While "The Closet" is not as preachy as it might have been in the hands of another director, the occasional sermonizing does detract from the film.
Rating:
Summary: "The Closet" well worth a look
Review: A very funny movie with some interesting twists--Daniel Auteuil plays an accountant about to be downsized. Divorced and avoided by his teenaged son he is ready to jump off his balcony when a new neighbor stops him, and suggests that to keep his job, he should "come out of the closet"--his company, which manufactures condoms, will not want to appear to have fired him for his sexual preferences. When he protests that he cannot act gay, his friend asserts that he will not need to change--others' perceptions of him will. Strangely enough, this subterfuge brings Auteuil and almost everyone in his life to confront and become who they really are--to come out of their own closets, so to speak. In French with English subtitles, which are pretty accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful Evening's Entertainment; LOL Farce
Review: Although Daniel Auteuil does his usual excellent character portrayal in this film, as an accountant who pretends to be gay to save his job with a condom manufacturer, it is Gerard Depardieu who steals the film. Depardieu plays a homophobic colleage who first schemes to get him fired and then seeks to engratiate himself with Auteuil in order to save his own job. I like this film better than this director's "The Dinner Party." For one, the other film has no counterpart to the hilarious Depardieu, found only in "The Closet." Director Francis Veber can deliver with French comedies and that genre needs a resurrection from its glory days of the 1970s.
Rating:
Summary: A mouse of a man saves his job by pretending that he is gay
Review: As you might guess from the title, "The Closet" ("La Placard") is a comedy about, as the trailer says, a man who comes out of a closet he was never in in the first place. This 2001 French comedy comes from writer-director Francis Veber, best known previously for writing the screenplay for the classic gay farce "La Cage aux folles." In many regards "The Closet" is a fitting counterpart to that earlier film.François Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is a nothing of a man who learns through the office grapevine that he is about to be fired from his job in the accounting department of a condom company. Since his wife divorced him and his son will have nothing to do with him, this could well be the last straw. But he encounters a new neighbor, Belone (Michel Aumont), who comes up with a plan. They will doctor somephotographs to make it look like Pignon is gay and make the company think twice about firing him and suffering from bad publicity. This ploy works although Pignon does NOTHING different at work; apparently everybody sees exactly what they expect to see when they look at him, even if they now expect something completely different. Meanwhile, Félix Santini (Gérard Depardieu) is warned that he will have to be nice to the gay guy and stop making intolerant comments or his job will be on the line. Of course, everybody starts treating the "new" Pignon quite differently from the old, which has both good and bad consequences for our hero. However, Mlle Bertrand (Michèle Laroque) becomes suspicious about the photographs and everything that is happening. Earlier this week I had watched "Unfaithful," another in a long line of Hollywood remakes of French films and I found myself thinking about whether "The Closet" might be Americanized at some future date. Although this happened with "La Cage aux folles" I tend to think this film will avoid that fate. There is a subtlety to the humor here that would be lost in translation if the film were redone. I particularly fear that the darker side of this film, would not be able to avoid darker manifestations of hate and violence in an American version. You will just have to live with sitting down and watching this film in French and reading the subtitles. Besides, if you saw and liked "La Cage aux folles" then you should enjoy what Veber has come up with this time around.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the funniest movies @ the self-fulfilling prophecy
Review: Besides the terrific acting--especially from Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu, writing and directing, what I liked about "The Closet" was how the Auteuil character did not ham it up after he decided to pretend he was gay--he just played himself. A lot of Hollywood movies would not have the guts to show a gay man behave "normally." They would have him behave like a screaming idiot like the Kevin Kline character in "In and Out." I thought it was interesting to note that when the Auteuil character was straight, meek and boring--the people around him perceived him that way so he wound up behaving that way: not wanting to create waves. A perfect example of this is at the beginning of the movie when he bows out of the company photograph. However, when he pretended to be gay, the same people changed their outlook on him and saw him as an exciting, dangerous, sex machine. As a result, he behaved that way by taking charge of his life. Can you picture the Auteuil character when was straight, meek and boring bursting into the CEO's office and accusing his boss for sexual harrassment, telling his ex-wife off that he doesn't find her interesting anymore, or making love to his boss on an assembly line? No way. This is the behavior from the Auteuil character when he is pretending to be gay. He is merely fulfilling the self-fulfilling prophecy and that is why I liked this movie: it is making a statement that society forms our behavior. If we look like such nice people then we must behave that way and if we don't, they'll say "That's not like you!" But if we come across as loud and aggressive and we behave in a not very nice way, they'll just write it off by saying that's just the way they are. So what am I trying to say here? That the people who behave in a rude manner are rewarded and the people who behave in a polite manner are condemned. That's exactly what happened in "The Closet." When the Auteuil character was behaving in a polite manner by not wanting to create waves--he almost loses his job. But when he accuses his boss for sexual harrassment--he not only keeps his job but he gets the girl too. There is something wrong with a society when these things occur. That is why I liked this movie--it dealt with these isues. That and also because it was extremely funny.
Rating:
Summary: There's good and bad
Review: Daniel Auteuil shines in this story of a man who risks losing his job but fakes his sexuality to keep his job. Gérard Dépardieu hilariously plays a man who goes mad as he falls for another man who he thinks is gay. The setting is a condom making factory. You can only imagine. A very funny film that reminds us why the French are progressive filmmakers! Now we know that they can make comedy, too!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious but relevent to today's issues
Review: Daniel Auteuil shines in this story of a man who risks losing his job but fakes his sexuality to keep his job. Gérard Dépardieu hilariously plays a man who goes mad as he falls for another man who he thinks is gay. The setting is a condom making factory. You can only imagine. A very funny film that reminds us why the French are progressive filmmakers! Now we know that they can make comedy, too!
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