ANGST CONSUMES 'CLOSET LAND'

By Matthew Gilbert

(Boston Globe, March 1991)

If you like a shot of torture in your diet melodrama, you might like ''Closet Land," from first-time director Radha Bharadwaj. The movie, filmed entirely in one gray, windowless room, features only two actors, Madeleine Stowe and Alan Rickman. She plays a children's author held in the chamber against her will and accused of writing a politically subversive manuscript. He is an official of an unnamed country whose charge is to force Stowe -- through psychological and physical violence - to sign a confession. The longer she maintains her innocence, claiming no political intent, the more Rickman turns on the evil eyebrows that have landed him villain roles in "Die Hard" and "Quigley Down Under."

The script is overflowing with Issues, from child abuse to women's rights and censorship. As Rickman and Stowe do all-out battle of the wits, she is wont to chant heavies like "Sleep is death" or "You can break my body but you cannot break my mind." The set is equally laden, a dimly lighted triangular room with a black-and-white checkered floor and thick columns. There are drawers filled with torture devices, and a table that literally turns as the warfare turns. It's all very Orwellian.

What helps the monotony slightly is Rickman, who provides camp comic relief on occasion. "Who is the friendly rooster?" he demands, swinging a bat. He relishes tormenting Stowe with burning cigarettes, letting her drink urine and dolling her up as a streetwalker. And watch out for those pliers. With a role marred by excessive sincerity, Stowe is less engaging than Rickman, clinging ever-so-nobly to her integrity.

"Closet Land," which might work better on the stage, is shot with surprising adventurousness, given the limited set. And it is refreshingly spare, in comparison to those big-budget Hollywood monsters. But it's overly well-intentioned, even didactic, and ends up sounding like dueling abstractions. It is humorless and drab, in need of a little less angst to give it more thrust.

 

 

 

Originally on KelClancy's Page