Closet Land
January 14th 2009 18:12
Closet Land, 1991
This is possibly the greatest movie that you have never seen, and I'm a mean, mean lady for telling you about it because, unless you speak Spanish and/or have a Region 2 DVD player and/or have a VCR still, you're probably not going to see it.
Except... there's a growing movement to get this movie released to Region 1 DVD, and you should get on that band wagon.
Alan Rickman fans may have heard the legend about this performance. It's a few years after Die Hard, and while we may have gotten a peek at his incredible acting prowess opposite John McClane, Closet Land was the turning point of his genius. Likewise, Madeleine Stowe shows us a similar depth and passion that makes us wonder why she hasn't been given similarly gut-punching roles since. (That is PURELY my own opinion. I'm spoiled.)
Closet Land is a paint-can script - two people alone in a room with no exits and no interlopers. It appears, at first, to be the dialogue between an Interrogator (Rickman), the agent of a fascist state, and a Victim, the writer of children's books who is accused of planting propaganda or maybe codes into her stories for some kind of rebellious underground. For this reason, Amnesty International put a great big seal of approval all over it, and in fairness, it is deserved.
However... there is another element to this story that often gets overlooked: the story is also about the woman struggling with her own demons and inner tormentors in coping with and dealing with the catastrophic emotional wounds that she suffered through the molestations of a friend of her mother's. It is the tale of healing and recovery through the self-loathing, the recrimination, the feelings of worthlessness and the sense of loss of purity that the survivors of rape and molestation go through.
The illustration of degradation and torture applies both to the police state and to the scars of innocence ripped away. The power of it - there really is no other word - is heartbreaking salvation.
Closet Land gets five solid stars with no conditions. Look it up on Amazon and IMdB to keep an eye on its progress towards re-release.
5 Stars
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