Up until the last ten minutes, writer/director Radha Bharadwaj's Closet Land is a fascinating psychological thriller that keeps the audience spellbound with its twisty dialogue between two characters. Madeleine Stowe plays a young children's author who has been dragged into an interrogation room to be questioned by an unnamed government interrogator (Alan Rickman, the show stealer from Robin Hood). The entire film takes place in the actions and conversation of these two characters within this confined space. Gradually we learn that Stowe is being questioned because of her new manuscript "Closet Land," which tells the story of a young girl who is shut in a closet by her mother and creates imaginary animals for friends. In a deft piece of literary criticism, Rickman explains to Stowe that her story is actually an anti-authoritarian subversive treatise, and requests that Stowe sign a damning confession, which she refuses to do. Thus begins an intense game of cat and mouse, during which Rickman learns that Stowe's story about a closet is more than it seems on the surface--even if it its inspiration has nothing to do with politics. The film takes a nosedive in the end when Rickman--one of the most intelligent and threatening villains in recent cinema--inexplicably crumbles, and Stowe delivers a direct-to-the-camera monologue that is basically an advertisement for Amnesty International (who is supporting the film). Even with the flawed ending, however, Closet Land is an acting tour de force, and is recommended. (R. Pitman)
Closet Land
color. 95 min. Fox Video. (1991). $92.98. Rated: R Library Journal
Closet Land
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