The Closet

François Pignon is an unremarkable accountant at a factory whose main product is condoms. His wife has left him, his teenage son keeps his distance, and he learns that the company intends to let him go. With nothing much left to hold on to, he considers ending his life, but his neighbour, a retired workplace psychologist, intervenes and proposes an unusual solution: let it be believed that Pignon is gay. A rumour to that effect reaches management, which decides that dismissing him could look like discrimination and puts the process on hold. Pignon's sudden change of status brings him attention he never had, along with complications and misunderstandings he did not foresee.

Francis Veber wrote and directed this French comedy, which followed his 1998 hit The Dinner Game in a run of films that also includes Ruby & Quentin, The Valet and A Pain in the Ass. Daniel Auteuil plays Pignon, with Gérard Depardieu as Félix Santini, Thierry Lhermitte as the public relations director, Michèle Laroque, Michel Aumont as the neighbour and Jean Rochefort as the factory's head. Twenty-nine performers are credited.

The production carried a budget reported at 95 million USD and took about 50 million USD worldwide, so it did not recoup its costs at the box office. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from roughly 19,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.4 out of 10 from around 536 votes. A critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 from 82 reviews places it above the audience scores.