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.
