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!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the funniest films you'll ever read.
Review: First, the full disclosure: I am not the kind of person that likes foreign films. Having said that, I highly recommend The Closet. Sure it's in French with English subtitles, but if you don't normally watch foreign films you'll be amazed at how quickly you forget that you're reading subtitles. This is a genuine laugh out loud movie, and how many comedies really fall into that category?
Keep in mind there is a lot of sexual content, and if you are easily offended this is not for you. However, if you are looking for a comedy that's a bit different (and much funnier) than the latest Adam Sandler movie, you can't go wrong with this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny but no "La Cage"
Review: Francis Veber is a wonderful writer of comedy, vis a vis "La Cage aux Folles" and the quirky "The Dinner Game." I am a great fan of his work. While "The Closet" has some funny scenes (the condom hat and the condom "testers at work" especially), the distant relationship between father and son seemed a little forced. The actors are all wonderful but the pacing is a little haphazard (stop and start instead of "on a roll")so the comedy doesn't build to that grand (dare I say?) climax. Still I would recommend this movie -- but in third place after "La Cage" and "Dinner Game."
Rating:
Summary: An archetypal French farce, glittering with star power.
Review: Francis Veber, the King of French Farce, keeps cranking 'em out at a rate that would boggle even the mind of Georges Feydeau. His latest, "The Closet," features nebbishy accountant Francois--mocked by his colleagues, abandoned by his wife, dissed by his son and about to be fired--who schemes to keep his job by pretending to be gay. Francois' gay psychologist neighbor advises him not to change anything about himself--what will change is other people's perception of him. That's not the only thing that changes in Veber's smoothly written, surefire-as-clockwork farce. Francois' life ends up changing in unforeseen ways, as do the lives of the people around him--particularly that of Santini, the homophobic personnel manager who must suddenly play up to Francois in order to keep his own job. All sorts of crazy complications ensue, and the denouement is appropriately sunny. "The Closet" won't change your life, but it will leave you feeling happy, and you will marvel at the sheer star power lavished on this lightweight tale. Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu, France's answer to Kevin Spacey and Robert De Niro, play Francois and Santini; in the supporting cast are Thierry Lhermitte, Michel Aumont and Jean Rochefort, which is roughly equivalent to having Richard Gere, Gene Hackman and Michael Caine in the supporting cast of an English-language movie. These superb professionals know exactly what is required of them, and deliver it gift-wrapped. As crazed as the comedy gets, it is the quiet individual moments that will really leave you rolling in the aisles: whether it's Auteuil's sick embarrassment at sitting on a Gay Pride float wearing a condom hat, or Depardieu's blissed-out, zombie stare as his world crumbles around him, you know that you are in the hands of master farceurs.
Rating:
Summary: An intelligent and amusing French comedy
Review: Francoix Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is fired from his job at a condom factory after 20 years, but at the suggestion of his new neighbour, Pignon pretends to be gay in order to sue the company for prejudice. So they send doctered photos of Pignon expoing his derriere in a gay bar to his workplace. But instead of backfiring the plan works far better than anticipated: with Pignon gaining promotions at work, earning him the attention of a female co-worker (who is attracted to gay men) and helping to reconcile Pignon's relationship with his estranged son. All this leads his homophobic colleague Felix Santini (Gerard Depardieu) to befriend him in order to keep HIS job.
THE CLOSET is a low-key movie, lightweight yet amusing, intelligent and emotive as well, with great performances from Auteuil and Depardieu; especially during their "shower" conversation, which is a real classic. Well worth seeing, but not as good as writer/director Francis Veber's earlier fim THE DINNER GAME.
Rating:
Summary: It's in the eye of the beholder
Review: How much of your life is what you make of it, or what others make of it for you?
Ms Pignon (Daniel Auteil from Jean de Florette) is a mousy, grey, drab accountant,working in a condom factory, that can't even get in the company picture. He finds, while in the bathroom from the chief of personnel (Gerarad Depardieu)that he will be laid off. Depardieu is also the coach of the company rugby team, a homophobic macho maniac.
Everybody seems to know that he's getting canned but him.
While trying to kill himself by jumping off a window, his new neighbor stops him. "It's my car down there, you'll wreck the roof" His neighbor, an industrial psychologist hatches a plan to save Pignon's job. He alters some gay pictures to make it seem that Pignon is gay. He cannot be fired anymore, or the company, with a large gay clientele would suffer a public relations nightmare.
He does not change anything in his life. His words, his actions, are exactly the same, but the reactions of everybody in his life to him change dramatically. His ex-wife, (Alexandra Vandernoot from The Dinner Game) who won't even take his calls, now answers the phone. Even his son, who refuses to dine with him because he is so drab, finds him interesting and cool after seeing him in the gay pride parade.
The whole movie is a study in reality vs perception, with a comic French touch that will have you laughing out loud. Next the cast.
I've already mentioned Auteil and Depardieu, but the rest of the cast is a who's who of modern French cinema.
Thierry Lhermitte, and Alexandra Vandernoot from The Dinner Game; Jean Rochefort from The hairdresser's husband and The Professional. If you like mainstream movies, or slapstick, then you probably are not reading this. If you've come this far, then your comedies must be intelligent and also perhaps sarcastic, and if so, this is the movie for you.
Rating:
Summary: I feel like I've tripped on to a nice little secret
Review: I enjoyed Francis Veber's 'The Closet' - released in France in 2001 - for two reasons. First, it features an all-star ensemble of French acting, certainly a tribute to Veber's skill as a director. Just take a gander at the first six names to appear on the IMDB credits:
Daniel Auteuil .... François Pignon
Gérard Depardieu .... Félix Santini
Thierry Lhermitte .... Guillaume
Michèle Laroque .... Mlle Bertrand
Michel Aumont .... Belone, the neighbour
Jean Rochefort .... Kopel, the director
Imagine a movie where the great Jean Rochefort gets slotted sixth. Each of these six stars can carry a movie in France on their own back. The fact that the group has teamed here is a testament to Veber's reputation. His previous release, 1998's 'The Dinner Game,' was lauded far and wide as a comedic masterpiece. Actors get attracted to that type of skill.
The second reason I got a kick out of watching 'The Closet': I just learned that 'Bend It Like Beckham' writing partners Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges are prepping a UK re-make for the screen for a targeted 2006 release, with Chadha at the helm. Her keen eye for comedy tinged with poignancy was confirmed by Beckham's runaway success, so I feel like I'm in on a really great secret knowing she's working on a re-make.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful movie
Review: I have laughed so much with this movie ! It is really hilarious and I bought it from Amazon and every time I am depressed I watch it. Daniel Auteuil is a magnificent actor. Do not miss it.
Rating:
Summary: c'est magnifique!
Review: i saw it all in french, and let me tell you it's a lot better than the translated version. i don't want to give away all the plot, but a heterosexual man working in the condom industry
acting like he's gay to keep his job, how can that not be funny?
Rating:
Summary: Very funny and entertaining
Review: If you are up for a fun entertaining light movie - The Closet is precisely what you are looking for. Here is the premise of the movie: Pignon is an employee at a rubber factory. He is in his early 40's, his wife left him two years earlier, and he is still madly in love with her, his only teenage son doesn't want to have anything to do with his "loser" dad. Pignon's co-workers ridicule him whenever possible, and he accidentally finds out from one of them that he is about to get fired. When everything seems lost and Pignon is ready to put an end his misery, he meets a new neighbor - an ex-psychologist, specializing in big industrial corporations. He advises Pignon to start pretending that he is gay, hoping that the company's president will be too afraid of an imminent sexual-discrimination suit and will not fire him. Gérard Depardieu plays a homophobe, who as a result of a prank, is manipulated into treating Pignon very nicely... Or way too nicely, as many think. A string of hilarious situations ensues. The Closet is definitely a not cinematic masterpiece, but it's a good movie, without a doubt. It's humane and compassionate - showing the anguish of lonely people, and at the same time is witty, funny and charming. Gérard Depardieu, and Daniel Auteuil give a great performance. Definitely worth watching.
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