The Closet (2000)
Cute, quaint, well done, and a French feel good comedy. This is nothing brilliant, but it's the equal of lots of American comedies in creating a situation that is filled with built-in laughs. And the leading man, Daniel Auteuil, is funny and sympathetic.
The setting for this all is an office of the most preposterous kind--a condom factory. This is meant to be funnier than it is, actually, but it's a colorful backdrop to the opening salvo--our leading man is not the best accountant and he gets fired. Back home, where his life has left him and his son has stopped talking to him, his neighbor stops him from jumping off the balcony to his death. And concocts a simple plan to keep his job: pretend he is gay.
The hook here is that by being openly gay the man would be able to claim he was fired by the gay bashers at the factory. This doesn't quite hold up, but the key basher is played with nice complexity by Gerard Depardieu, who himself begins to show some latent something or other.
There is plenty of sympathy and warmth to go around here, and lots of appropriate laughs as you empathize with the main guy. Eventually, of course, people discover the ruse and that starts some new jokes. All in all enjoyable and fun, without a dull moment. And that's all you expect or need from this kind of movie.
