"Hey! Let's make a movie about an oppressive government torturing one of its citizens for no real reason. That's pretty awful stuff, and we know it happens in the real world. The plot? Oh, who cares; it's the MESSAGE that counts. We must all fight for the freedom to think and write what we please!"
Those could have been the thoughts running through the mind of the filmmaker who created "Closet Land." The result is a desperately earnest but thin and tedious film. The hero's allegedly subversive children's story is of NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER, which makes the endless analysis and retelling insufferably dull. "But that's the point! She didn't write anything subversive, but those totalitarian monsters insisted on READING it that way!" Well, duh; who cares? Boring is boring.
It has been noted that "The Pillowman" by Martin McDonagh may have been inspired by the central notion of this film: an author being interrogated by a totalitarian officer for writing questionable stories. I almost hope it's true, as I can imagine McDonagh's irritation in slogging through this film: "What terrible, dreary handling of an interesting idea!" McDonagh's play fixes the two biggest defects of "Closet Land." First, his author writes *interesting* stories, and lots of them. They are genuinely subversive: creepy and twisted tales that inspire uncomfortable nervous laughter. Second, McDonagh handles the interrogator with black humor worthy of Kafka. The off-center levity heightens the surrealism and the tension.
So see "Closet Land" if you feel obligated to perform a chore in support of a worthy cause. See or read "The Pillowman" if you actually want to see something good.
Those could have been the thoughts running through the mind of the filmmaker who created "Closet Land." The result is a desperately earnest but thin and tedious film. The hero's allegedly subversive children's story is of NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER, which makes the endless analysis and retelling insufferably dull. "But that's the point! She didn't write anything subversive, but those totalitarian monsters insisted on READING it that way!" Well, duh; who cares? Boring is boring.
It has been noted that "The Pillowman" by Martin McDonagh may have been inspired by the central notion of this film: an author being interrogated by a totalitarian officer for writing questionable stories. I almost hope it's true, as I can imagine McDonagh's irritation in slogging through this film: "What terrible, dreary handling of an interesting idea!" McDonagh's play fixes the two biggest defects of "Closet Land." First, his author writes *interesting* stories, and lots of them. They are genuinely subversive: creepy and twisted tales that inspire uncomfortable nervous laughter. Second, McDonagh handles the interrogator with black humor worthy of Kafka. The off-center levity heightens the surrealism and the tension.
So see "Closet Land" if you feel obligated to perform a chore in support of a worthy cause. See or read "The Pillowman" if you actually want to see something good.