Rating: 
Summary: Offensive
Review: This is one of the most offensive and anti-gay movies I have ever seen. Don't let the title or the box fool you. Every character in this movie is oozing with homophobic sentiment. I was shocked that such a film could come out of France. If you're a homophobe and want to sit and watch a bunch of hateful people sit around and attack and harass (verbally and physically) a man who pretends to be gay to save his job, then rent this and snack on a can of worms.
HIDEOUS!
Rating: 
Summary: Sit back, relax and enjoy!!! Great time!
Review: This is such an easy going movie. With such a theme, it could have turned to be terrible, but Francis Werber just knows how to bring each character to life. Throughout the movie, you get to know every person, love some, can't stand other, then like them more, it's vivid, it's lively, it's touching.
You go through many emotions: you feel sorry for the nerd who will pretend he's gay to save his job, you will laugh at some of the employees' reaction to it - and be annoyed at others. It evolves very nicely and the end is light and uplifting.
Absolutely loved it - like the Dinner Game, the more you watch it, the more you like it.
Rating:
Summary: 'American Pie' with subtitles
Review: This is uncomfortable drivel. O look, of course it's funny to some extent - Gerard Derpadieu mouths off homophobic abuse, not once but repeatedly, and his derision is (surprise, surprise) a shield against his own inclinations - yes, you will laugh, but essentially this same joke is repeated a dozen times, by which time you might well have ceased laughing; then Gerard has some kind of mental breakdown, and mental illness is, in the best Hollywood tradition, a source of much merriment. This cliche is typical of the entire film - other examples: if you need a villain, make sure you cast a foreigner (thus Daniel Auteuil's ex-wife is Dutch); to sustain a plot you must have an implausibly successful romance (I think the writer consulted 'Revenge of the Nerds' for some plot tips here); the cliches surrounding homosexuality are also deployed relentlessly, and reflex and habit will have you laughing along with the rest of the audience, at least for a while - just don't think too much about why you are laughing, 'don't think too much' being, I suppose, a worthy motto for most present-day popular cinema. Personally, I wish that I'd contented myself with viewing the trailer and giggling at the poster featuring Daniel Auteuil wearing an oversized condom - the film itself adds little to these pleasures.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Verber's best...
Review: To be sure, Francis Verber has talent. With the wildly funny "Dinner Game", he showed that he was able to weave hilarious situational comedy. Unfortunately, "The Closet" does not pick up where "The Dinner Game" left off. There's nothing awful about it, but in a failed attempt to put a new spin on Verber's creation Francois Pignon, "The Closet" never delivers. Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is considered an idiot by many who work with him at a condom factory and is on the verge of being fired. He gets word of this, and dismayed turns to his new neighbor Belone (Michel Aumont). Belone suggests a tricky scheme to save Pignon's job: pretend that he is gay and the company will never fire him if they want to save their image. The scheme is working, and on the other side of the spectrum there is another prank being played. Homophobe Felix Santini (Gerard Depardieu) is being pressured to act nice to Pignon to save his job, and unexpected things begin to happen. Francois Pignon is one of the funnier characters I have encountered in recent years. In Verber's previous film he was a flat-out idiot, meaning well but always saying the wrong things and the wrong times. In "The Closet", everyone calls him an idiot, but I don't buy it. He seems perfectly intelligent to me. Pignon is translated here as a boring punch line without the setup. Much to my surprise, I found that I couldn't care less what happens to him over the course of the film. One of the most valuable pieces of advice I could give to Verber from an audience member's perspective is: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Only partly because of Pignon's shortcomings does the film fall flat. Most of the jokes just aren't funny. They're the same sort of recycled gay jokes we get all the time in movies. The screenplay feels worn and tired, and what could've been a breath of fresh air becomes recycled and stale. Verber is merely taking an interesting idea and presenting the obvious "What-ifs" that immediately pop into one's mind when hearing a synopsis about the film. The acting was incredibly sub-par as well. Daniel Auteuil, who is on the whole a very good actor gives a performance as monotone and boring as Pignon is (see him in "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" if you really want to see what he's made of). Gerard Depardieu is fair, but doesn't show enough desperation that we are told Felix so obviously has. Michele Laroque breathes a little more life into her character Mlle Bertrand, Pignon's secretary; she is the highlight of an ensemble that is relatively uninteresting and never shows enough range. "The Closet" is a wasted opportunity. In situational comedy, we need to care about or at least understand the characters to a certain extent or it will be impossible to laugh when they get into trouble. While Verber seemed like he could handle that, in "The Closet" it doesn't seem he believes in his characters; as if he believes that the audience need only take them at face value. Unfortunately, "The Closet" ranks as one of the most disappointing ventures of the year.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Well constructed, funny, and a sublime social commentary. It took so little... coming out of a closet never entered that changed people's perceptions and behaviors in such strange and powerful ways. Using this to its benefit, the movie makes some strong statements in a hilarious fashion. Well worth watching!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Well constructed, funny, and a sublime social commentary. It took so little... coming out of a closet never entered that changed people's perceptions and behaviors in such strange and powerful ways. Using this to its benefit, the movie makes some strong statements in a hilarious fashion. Well worth watching!
Rating: 
Summary: An actual comedy!
Review: What an enjoyable film! Funny from start to finish and full of little visual laughs. Leave it to the French (or British, or Italians) to be heartwarminly politically incorrect. Just go see it.
Rating:
Summary: To all the Pignons of this world
Review: Who is Francois Pignon?
He is a character that Francis Veber has used in many of his films, from La Chevre to the excellent Diner Des Cons, and he appears again in his latest Le Placard/The Closet.
Pignon is always a lonely man, separated or divorced, with no friends or social life,accident prone,in short down on his luck, an average man living a dull existence, and invariably an oddity in a society that applauds people with good looks, and success professionally and socially..The very type of people that look down at Pignon and make fun of him..Hero vs anti Hero.
This is Francois Pignon and Veber's character in the films should be looked at in this context, regardless if one film is funnier than the other.
Certainly Diner Des Cons is funnier than Closet, and if you expect the same laughs then you will look at Veber's latest with less enthusiasm, and appreciate it less. Veber did not intend to repeat the same formula he used in Diner Des Cons, but give us a story about another Pignon, in a different context and situation.
There is more poignancy in the Closet,and it is a bittersweet comedy, like the French can only make.
The pretext of pretentious gayness to keep his job, is only a backdrop to Pignon's predicament at the hand of society, but it is a very clever insight nevertheless, into the corporate atmosphere and political correctness vs homophobia.
Yet what I found very interesting about the gay angle, is how Pignon discovers a strenght and confidence he never thought he had by pretending to be gay.The way his colleagues and family react to him, from ridicule, to excessive friendliness, to pride, (from his own son, thinking it is very cool), is very interesting.
The acting I though was very good. Assembling some of the best French working actors today , including Depardieu, Rochefort, Lhermitte and of course Auteuil.
He plays Pignon in a straight faced manner..but not boring as some reviewer saw it, because his performance reflects so well the character he is playing. All Pignons are boring! Whereas in Diner Des Cons, Pignon had the gift of talking! even in the wrong moments, saying the wrong things, and entertaining the viewer in the process, Pignon of Closet had deep anxieties, and he shows them.
The beauty about Francois Pignon is that he triumphs at the end. He saves the day..manages to make people happy, or clear the mess he put himself or others in, becoming the most unlikely hero. and this is Veber's triumph and with it The Closet.
It is a wonderful film, that I hope Hollywood will not remake, because all Veber's american remakes,(Three Fugitives, The Toy, Birdcage) even the ones he directed himself, lose their magic,
the magic of Francois Pignon.
Rating:
Summary: Constructing homosexuality
Review: You can still come out from the closet if you have never entered it. Closet is a pleasant, light and comic movie about constructing homosexuality, without being a homosexual at all.
Rating:
Summary: M.Pignon Opens Closet: Funny French Comedy about Sexuality
Review: You may not know the name of French director Francis Veber, and his funny French comedy "The Dinner Game" (1999), but if you are fond of comedy, you might have seen the films like "Father's Day" and "Birdcage." Yes, the last two Hollywood outings are actually remakes of his works, and though not all of his films are masterpieces, "The Closet" alone would make you remember his name. This film is that funny. Daniel Auteuil is M. Pignon, who has been working for a condom factory as an accountant for 20 years, now he happens to learn that he is going to be fired. Shocked by the news, he thinks of jumping from the window to kill himself when an old man living in the next room gives a tip; "pretend you're gay." For political reasons (and commercial ones too) the company cannot fire him as they are afraid of being accused of having discriminating attitudes. It succeeds, and M. Pignon is happy ... for a while. Because unexpected things happen like chain reaction; "sexual harrassment" from his beautiful female boss (she has her own reason), sexual advance from his co-worker and rugby coach (he has his own reason, too), and so on. The story goes on with twists and turns, finally leading to the confidence newly established in M. Pignon. Though the ending is not as good as it should be, and some parts are a bit incredible, the cast is so great that those flaws are all ignored in the end. Daniel Auteuil's dead-pan humor is always effective, and funniest is his face when he is in a parade wearing a huge tip of condom on his head. Also humorous is Gerard Depardieu, whose character experiences a total transformation. "The Closet" has some satire on our attitude about sexuality, but it doesn't preach them. Rather, the film handles them with a lighter tough, which avoids the pitfall of being too gloomy or philosophical. The fact is, the film is too light for some; and clearly the director hesitates to push some interesting points the film presents. But "The Closet" should be about M. Pignon, who, just like the protagonist of the same name in "The Dinner Game," is about Mr. Everyman. His journey to a new life is what we see, and we enjoy watching. As such the film succeeds, and it is because of fantastic Daniel Auteuil.
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