The Closet
The Closet is a bonbon spiked with mirth and malice. Daniel Auteuil, as good an actor as France has ever produced, stars as Francois, an accountant so dull that his wife has left him, his teenage son shuns him and his boss (the wonderful Jean Rochefort) is about to can him after twenty years. Francois contemplates suicide until a new neighbor (Michel Aumont) hatches a plan. Francois will pretend to be gay, forcing his boss to save his job for fear of a sex-discrimination suit. The comedy pivots on how everyone, including the firm's homophobic personnel director (Gerard Depardieu), suddenly finds the gay Francois a figure of intense allure. Auteuil and Depardieu spar hilariously, and writer-director Francis Veber, following The Dinner Game, offers another delicious treat.