Review of Closet Land (1991) by Jay M — 27 Jan 2008

[font=Arial][color=#000000]I can?t think of another film in recent memory (or even at all, really) that showcases such great performances in such shitty material. Known to us as only ?Victim? and ?Interrogator?, this is essentially a two-person show, with the lovely Madeleine Stowe playing a children?s book author held captive and ruthlessly interrogated by Alan Rickman, who played Hans Gruber in the original [i]Die Hard[/i].

Apparently, she?s under suspicion of incorporating subliminal messages in her newest book ?Closet Land?, which would spread communist propaganda to impressionable children. What kind of propaganda, you might ask? Well, the country they?re in is never specified, so we?d have to [i]assume [/i]it?s America, unless our American author lives abroad, but that?s not the issue ? the plot of the film is equally ambiguous.

For the better part of the first hour, this woman is subjected to all manner of torture to confess to her crimes against her government, all while she maintains her innocence. She slapped, stripped to her underwear, her face is painted up to look like a whore, she?s tricked into drinking piss, her toenails are pried off and in one particularly wince-inducing sequence, she suffers vaginal electroshock.

I won?t even go into what the term ?being barbequed? implies ? she goes through that too. In between these vicious attacks on her body, are psychological attacks on her mind, in an effort to confuse, debase and degrade her.

The film, which was written and directed as an argument against government torture policies and coercion, quickly and needlessly turns into some kind of weird, post-modernistic experiment on its characters.

How much of this can she stand before she breaks? How much of this can he administer before he gives up? Is she innocent? Is she lying? The final 20 minutes reveal a ?twist? (if you want to call it that) that is not only painfully and ridiculously convenient, but single-handedly burns the weak rope-bridge the film was building to some sort of point.

To call it nasty and unpleasant defeats any purpose ? it?s a film that [i]wants [/i]you to wince and shake your head, and question totalitarian governments and their basement practices, but this film?s message is murky and the execution is borderline exploitation.

Carrying the entire film without any other cast mates, Stowe and Rickman gives great, powerful performances in that one, gray pillard room, but by the end it all felt so wasted. The film ended with the empty room, shreds of paper on the floor and two empty chairs.

My brain probably looked the same when I was finished watching. [/color][/font].