By
Graig Uhlin
Arizona Summer Wildcat
French sex farce a must-see before the opening of 'American Pie 2'
Grade: A-
Long before the rise of gross-out jokes and Adam Sandler's loudmouth, dumb-guy delivery, comedy had a rigid structure to it, one that would establish a "situation" that would play itself out over the course of a film. This is not to say that contemporary comedies are bad - although too many of them pander to cheap, juvenile antics (i.e. Tom Green's entire career) - but simply to point out that comedy has long-standing traditions associated with it that one doesn't often see today, except maybe on TV's "Frasier."
Maybe that is why we had to wait for an import from France before we did. "The Closet" is a comedy that fits snugly into the French farce tradition. Its lead character, Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) has an ex-wife that he is in love with, a teenage son that won't speak to him and an accounting job that he's no good at. And because he's no good, he's being fired. And because he finds this out, he's about to commit suicide from his balcony. That is, until a kind neighbor talks him down and hatches a scheme that will save Pignon his job, his family and ultimately, his dignity.
Pignon is going to pretend that he's gay.
With political correctness and diversity pushing their way into corporate agendas, Pignon's neighbor figures that no company will want to seem discriminatory by firing a gay man. In the movie, he's right. Pignon then reluctantly has to act like he is gay, and the situation proceeds to greater and greater extremes (at one point, Pignon appears in a pride parade as the company's mascot wearing a condom hat (it's a rubber company). It is around this premise that this film looks for its laughs, and ultimately does find them.
There's a danger with these kind of films, where, as they satirize political correctness, they risk pissing off all the sensitive people for whom that correctness exists. Moreover, the film's audience lives in a politically correct world, and they're watching the film in a politically correct theater, and don't want to be laughing at what is politically incorrect.
"The Closet," however, does not fall victim to this mostly because it does not rely on stereotype for its jokes. Pignon doesn't camp it up when he plays at being gay. As his neighbor tells him, it's his co-workers perception of him that will change - he doesn't need to change anything about himself. This is the film's most worthwhile revelation - a label can eclipse someone's whole personality and being gay or being black or being disabled can completely augment people's opinions of you. And it's a message that the film gets across without being preachy.
This is a film that only could have come out of France - or rather, anywhere except the U.S. Here, political correctness is a way of life and sex can't even find its way into the school curriculum, let alone the big screen - that is, in any serious manner. In this country, our sex comedies are all about teenagers out to lose their virginity and each character is an extreme (i.e. the virgin, the slut, the gay guy). Sexually, this country seems caught in adolescence, whether you're watching the upcoming "American Pie 2," MTV's "Undressed" or "Dawson's Creek."
"The Closet," on the other hand, offers a smart and funny look at contemporary sexual politics, and does it all without ever humping any baked goods.
