The Closer

My review was written in January 1991 after watching the film at a Manhattan screening room.

Danny Aiello's bravura performance gives some backbone to "The Closer", a trite tale of an overbearing salesman that betrays its theatrical origins. Film should face tough sledding in movie houses but is okay fodder for tv.

Aiello toplined in the 1976 Broadway play basis of this material, co-scripter Louis La Russo II's "Wheelbarrow Closers" (directed for the stage by Paul Sorvino), and that property's producer Tony Conforti returns as an executive producer of the film. Unfortunately, the thematics have dated.

Aiello is "The Closer", author of a book of that title detailing his ascent to the top closing real estate deals for the CDC Corporation. He's about to step down and has rounded up his two leading salesmen from out of town, street smart Michael Pare and by-the-book Joseph Cortese, to share his family Thanksgiving dinner in Los Angeles and compete for the presidential office.

That structure is similar to Jean Negulesco's excellent 1954 20th Century-Fox film "Woman's World", but that Cinemascope pic emphasized in equal time fashion the wives of the aspiring execs competing for boss Clifton Webb's approval.

Though Aiello's family is the center of the action here, the employees' families are not presented, a telling change from the '50s when such matters counted. Aiello browbeats and abuses employees and his family alike to dominate the piece.

There's not much suspense generated, since as Pare's character says at one of several third act climaxes, Aiello really has no intention of stepping down and is merely playing mind games.

Film is interesting to watch in conjunction with the current Aiello release "Once Around", which he filmed just one month after doing "The Closer". The role of dominant family patriarch facing retirement is similar, while in "The Closer" Aiello also incorporates the super salesman persona and heart condition that Richard Dreyfuss carried in the Lasse Hallstrom opus.

What's fascinating is the different acting style Aiello adopts here, a cold, calculating performance that carefully denies the immense sympathy he generated in "Once Around". Both roles are career triumphs for the character actor.

Supporting cast does yeoman work to enliven one-dimensional roles, with Pare convincing at the pool table beating his boss (in a fine scene where Aiello pays homage to Jackie Gleason's cool-as-a-cucumber Minnesota Fats in "The Hustler"). Cortese is given less to work with and obviously would be more at home playing Pare's role.

Diane Baker, looking as beautiful as in her starlet days, makes a welcome return to film as Aiello's long-suffering wife. Tv star Justine Bateman is sexy and acid-tongued as their independent daughter. Tim Quill creates sympathy as Aiello's misunderstood artist son.

James Karen gives a solid performance as the business confidante passed over for the top job. Viewer will have to look at '50s classics "Patterns" and "Executive Suite" for the real lowdown on his character, however.

Subplot involving the death of Aiello's son (played by his real-life son Rick) is awkwardly presented in a series of flashbacks and fantasy "ghost" scenes that interrupt the action and inject unhelpful sentimentality. Dimitri Logothetis' direction is smooth, and film's tech credits are modest.

I totally disagree with the obnoxious reviews that are posted about this film -- Danny Aiello was exceptional! Having lived in one of these families (my father was a Closer), the story line and the actors were right on! Michael Pare` was cool, a study in perfection. Glad to see him in a straight dramatic role, instead of car chases and guns. He's the sexiest man around.

OK - maybe I sugarcoated my opinion just a little.

The central character is a raging lunatic. The entire premise of the film is weak,threadbare, laughable (sneeringly, not humorously).

Dear God --to have back, the time I wasted watching it! I wanted to rate it in the minus column, but apparently that's not an option.

Choose a root-canal, if you have a choice of that or this film. You'll thank me.

The movie "The Closer" is about Chester Grant, a man driven to succeed at any cost. The movie opens with Chester giving a speech after receiving a business award. He opens with the question "What does it take to achieve this level of success?" Chester answers the rhetorical question with the word "Sacrifice". He urges his audience to dream and not to let anything stand in the way of their dreams. The movie then goes on to artistically lay bare the devastating effects of Chester's monomaniacal focus of closing sales on all those around him, especially his wife and children.

Chester, CEO and salesman extraordinaire, has wasted his body and his life in the pursuit of wealth and success and has reached the top. Now at the age of only 54 he must step down for health reasons. He decides that the man to replace him must be in his own image, a salesman, even though other members of the board are more qualified to run the corporation.

The evening is set where the final two candidates to replace him will have dinner with Chester at his mansion, with his family, on Thanksgiving night. At the end of the night one salesman will win the top job and the other will lose. The candidates are the two top salesmen of the company. One is a straight company man who says and does everything he can to please Chester. The other candidate is a smart, fast talking hustler type with street smarts who eventually sees through the whole charade.

Gradually another drama begins to unfold, a drama that exposes the flaws and emptiness of Chester's life and he descends upon a dangerous journey of self discovery.

The one precious image that Chester holds dear in his heart is that of his much beloved and recently deceased son, Billy (actually played by Danny Aiello's son in real life, Rick Aiello). These memories haunt him until his remaining son, Chet, finally exposes the terrible truth of even that destructive and fatal relationship. Chester loses is final comforting delusion and he is at last lost and alone. Chet leaves his father with one final question to ponder: 'was it worth it?'

In the end Chester is left to review the stark reality of his life. He instinctively goes to the top of corporate headquarters and he stands alone on the rooftop of his executive skyscraper in darkness. Here Chester gives an utterly fantastic and tragic monologue that should have received rave reviews for Aiello. Chester remembers his mother 'she never judged me, she just loved me'. He questions is happiness real 'nobody's really happy, are they? Are they?' In the end Chester answers Chet's last question 'Was it worth it?'

The movie closes with the penetrating question "What profit a man if he gain the whole world yet lose his own soul". Watch the movie and judge.