In the Bedroom
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Movie Reviews of In the Bedroom
Movie Review: Be Patient and Watch Yourself Come to Life
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is so simple, so natural, so normal, that despite the resounding applause from critics, it is easy for the public to ignore such a movie. Being moderately low budget, it is in reatively limited release, but still it doesn't enter the cineplexes with any bombast fury to announce its arrival. Instead it'll sneak in, take up residence, and please the audience members who are lured by the intrigue--courtesy of the Academy. Nominated for Best Picture as well as most of the best actor/ress categories, the best advertising that In the Bedroom has accrued is from its ample award nominations. And, ultimately, such nominations are completely deserved.The film starts with innocent pastoral landscapes, but by the second act, all glassy-eyed virginity is quickly stricken away. From the direction standpoint, the film is recorded aptly. Indeed little variety can be experienced in the limited settings, but with an abnormal tendency for long, deep, continuous shots, the scenes bring the audience increasingly involved. When the camera does finally pull back to take the sweeping vistas of Camden, Maine, it is done with a simplicity and appreciation for the inherent beauty to be discovered there.
The screenplay is believable from beginning to end, with dialogue that is appropriate, if minimalist in execution. The story is one enthralling, yet simple enough to ensconce even the most distant viewer. Indeed, this isn't a film depicting events; it is more about prophesying the natural human response to a series of tragedies. Moreover and more disturbing is how the screenplay applies to the individual. This is a film that displays the human reaction, your reaction, my reaction, to said tragedies. It's an intriguing experience, knowing that in the same situation, under the same circumstances, we would be going through, considering, and enacting the exact same things. So when observing the story, we can watch, ruing the character's decisions, applauding their triumphs, criticizing their follies, and still maintain the intimate knowledge that it could have just as easily been you or I, and we would have done the exact same thing. It is a wake-up call to the human conscious, providing intense insight into what could be.
Finally, and on the topic with which the Academy has been most gracious, is the performances. The lead actor, Tom Wilkinson, the protagonist perhaps by default, is letter perfect for the entire film, and if any of the cast deserves the Oscar, it is he. Sissy Spacek also glows in her own cold, dark manner. Marisa Tomei, also nominated, offers an admirable performance, for a decidedly minor role that nonetheless circles the conflict of the story.
It should be noted, in conclusion, that this is a very somber movie, a very realistic movie--perhaps in the most disturbing sense of the word. It is leisurely paced indeed, but if you offer yourself into the characters, the time will pass without notice. It is a very good film, with a very good story--a story that reverberates in the soul of every viewer not for its message, but for the resonance it holds in our own hearts--and with a cast that, not least of all, perfectly captures all of the subtleties that the film encapsulates. In the Bedroom is nominated for Best Picture, and while it's subtle place in Hollywood might prevent it from taking home the statue, it is no less deserving of that distinguished honor than any of the other nominated films.
Movie Review: It changes you...
Summary: 5 Stars
...I have never felt so shaken and stirred by a film since Requiem for a Dream last year. In the Bedroom is a truly amazing film experience. It is a movie that shows what emotions families and parents go through together when they lose someone very close to them. If you have yet to see this splendid picture, then I recommend stop reading this review,...see the movie, and thank me later.This movie has basically everything that a masterpiece requires - excellent acting, fantastic first-time direction, a true-to-life and realistic script that deals with many emotions parents and married couples go through, some awesome visual choices, fine character development and a good moral and message - but I won't tell you what it is because it might spoil the film's amazing and unpredictable finale for you.
I think the performances in this movie are what make the movie such a riveting, raw and real treat in cinema. Sissy Spacek is very good, but I don't consider her the best actress or performer of the year. Her performance was still very touching and complex, and I appreciated her performance. Nick Stahl was hardly in the movie but I really enjoy his acting, and consider him to be one of the most underrated young actors working today. Marisa Tomei is Oscar-worthy and I thought she was nothing less than incredible as the character who everyone else seems to revolve around. However, at the end of the day Tom Wilkinson really steals the show. He has proved to me that he can do any genre and do it good (he was also in The Full Monty). He was a terrific leading man and he gives what I think is probably the best performance of 2001. There's also good performances from Tom Cruise's cousin William Mapother and Celia Weston, who touched me with a particular scene at a camp.
The screenplay for In the Bedroom was nothing short of spectacular. While showing the events and many obstacles mothers and fathers come across when losing a son or daughter in the drama category, the movie's script is also very thrilling and tense. I had to remind myself to keep breathing at times. There is also some very powerful dialogue in here, and there is one masterful scene in Wilkinson and Spacek finally talk about their feelings, and not in a calm style either. This is a wonderfully written and presented film, and the writing deserves a lot of recognition for having guts to go nowhere were any other film has gone before.
The moments of silence in the film also add to the tense and atmosphere of the picture. I also noticed the movie had a continuous eerie musical sound to it, and the score was very suitable for the movie. The cinematography for the film is also to be noted as some of the best camera-work of 2001. The camera tricks are hardly noticeable but it's the fact that the director has the camera very still and non-visceral, but let's face it, this isn't exactly the happiest or cheeriest movie you'll see.
One of the most powerful pictures I've come across in my film viewing time, In the Bedroom is not a movie I hesitate to call a masterpiece. Many will be disappointed with its length and sometimes annoying repetitive black-out's, but I think it was all needed to showcase the feel and message this brand spankin' new filmmaker wanted to get across...MY GRADE: A+
Movie Review: An American Tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
...A tragic tale of a murdered son and the disintegration of a happy marriage. Directed by Todd Field, he also wrote the script with Robert Festinger, IN THE BEDROOM is based on a short story by Andre Dubus. It looks to be the frontrunner for Miramax at the Oscars.
Within the cast are comeback kids, newcomers, and familiar faces. Sissy Spacek, nominated for Best Actress this year and was last nominated in 1984 for THE RIVER, is Ruth Fowler - the music teacher at the local high school who deals with the loss of her son Frank, played by the blank-faced Nick Stahl, who is shot (very graphic!) and killed by a jealous ex-husband Richard Strout (William Mapother, real-life cousin to Tom Cruise) of Frank's older girlfriend and single mother Natalie, played by Best Supporting Actress nominee and past winner Marisa Tomei. Tom Wilkinson, a distinguished British actor who got a Best Actor nod, is Dr. Matt Fowler, who does his best to cope with the loss of his son.
What starts as a bright and cheery film about young boy and older woman in love soon becomes a nightmarish world of darkness, silence, and ultimately retribution. Matt and Ruth's 25-year marriage falls apart when Frank is killed by Richard, who wants to reconcile with Natalie. It does sound like a soap opera at first, but once the killing happens - it's a different story. Little by little, Matt and Ruth try to move on, but the void is so great and since they have no other children or will never have grandchildren for that matter, it makes it all the more sadder and heartbreaking when they realize that they have nothing left.
They continue their lives in their work, neglecting the other, arguing about who was harder on Frank and who was always on his side, protecting him from the other's advice (a wonderful confrontation scene in the kitchen). And then there is that moment where Natalie comes to the high school and begs for Ruth's forgiveness. Her response - a slap in the face! Later, Natalie meets Matt at the convenient store, but there confrontation is more understanding and forgiving. Frankly speaking, both scenes contrast and are so wonderfully different that we know who is the patient one (Matt) and who is the most grieved (Ruth).
William Mapother didn't strike me as a psychopath which, I guess, served its purpose well. I never expected the murder, though I knew it would happen. And so graphic! Well, whoever said murder was pretty? I think this was a good performance to break out, especially if you are Tom Cruise's cousin. (He claims he struggled just like the rest of us did.) Marisa Tomei, who disappeared after winning an Oscar in 1992 for MY COUSIN VINNY but returned in recent films like THE WATCHER and WHAT WOMEN WANT, is still a beautiful and very fragile person. (I still remember her early years on TV's "It's A Different World.")
But it's Spacek and Wilkinson who are the heart and soul of the film. It isn't until the end when Matt has properly disposed of Richard that I realize what they, and I'm sure millions of other parents, are capable of. It's terrible to see a happy couple and pillars of the community be forced into committing such a heinous act of revenge - yet it was necessary, and that's the brutal aspect of life.
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Movie Review: Intelligent, emotionally-charged drama
Summary: 5 Stars
"In the Bedroom" is certainly one of 2001's best movies. It has five great performances, three of which were nominated for Oscars. The script is one of those fine ones in which interesting events are happening on the surface, while even more intriguing ones are going on underneath. Like many movies with great meaning, though, it is not what most people consider entertainment. And I have to admit that this opinion has merit. After all, the terms `meaningful' and `entertaining' are, in many ways, polar opposites. "In the Bedroom" is for viewers who, on occasion at least, enjoy a movie that provokes them and causes them to think. Ruth and Matt Fowler [Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson] live in a small town on the coast of Maine. He's the town doctor, and she's the music teacher at the local high school. In such a place, they are at the top of the social ladder. Their son, Frank [Nick Stahl], is spending the summer at home before going off to graduate school in the fall. He is having an affair with an older woman, Natalie [Marisa Tomei], who has a couple of kids and is in the process of divorcing her rich-kid husband, Richard [William Mapother]. It's anything but an amicable divorce. This fact gives the seeming idyllic love affair an ominous undercurrent, to which Frank seems oblivious.
Ruth objects to the affair for her own reasons. Though Frank insists it's just a summer affair, she senses that her son is in love. She feels that the relationship will jeopardize his future. Matt is supportive of his son for several reasons. He is living vicariously through Frank. More importantly, his relationship with Ruth exists as a shell of what it once was. They don't really like each other anymore and have taken to disagreeing just to disagree. Matt may support his son just because Ruth doesn't. It's a stance he will live to regret.
It's hard to believe that this is director Todd Field's first movie. Prior to this, he was just a relatively successful character actor.
The cast is much better known. Nick Stahl has been acting since he was a small child, although this is easily his most important role. Tom Wilkinson is a very famous character actor in his native England. Sissy Spacek was once a major star. Her Best Actress Oscar was for "Coal Miner's Daughter" twenty years ago, and she was nominated four other times between 1977 and 1987. As roles in movies dwindled, she went off and raised a family. She also did a few small movie roles and several TV movies, but I think it's still fair to call "In the Bedroom" her comeback. It's her best performance in a long and distinguished career. I hope she's back to stay.
Though some of us like to believe that `it can't happen here', we all know that bad things can and do happen everywhere. This fact is part of what makes "In the Bedroom" so disturbing. The Fowlers are such decent, ordinary people living in such a beautiful and peaceful New England town. The horrible event that wrecks their lives is particularly overwhelming to them because nothing in their lives could prepare them for it. The movie reminds us that good and bad are relative terms. It's easy to be a `good' person as long as nothing happens to compel us to become `bad'.
Movie Review: A Superb, Emotionally Shattering Drama!
Summary: 5 Stars
It is hard to have enough good words to say regarding the level of excellence obvious in every frame of this painstakingly beautifully made drama. As is often the case these days, this work is the result of the efforts of an independent agent, showing how difficult it is to anything worthwhile done from within the confines of the Hollywood success-oriented movie-making monster. With a small budget and world-class actors, this economy-class effort shows that going in under budget doesn't necessarily lead one into mediocrity. Quite the contrary is true here. This movie shines through its poignant portrayal of a family reeling into existential crisis based on the savage murder of a family member, and deals superbly with the incredible range of emotions such an extraordinary event wreaks in its aftermath. The terrific cast includes Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei, each of whom was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for the performances rendered here. This is a starkly realistic depiction of life in the raw, and doesn't soft-pedal any aspect of the wrenching personal experience such monumental loss tows in its wake. All the second-guessing, recriminations and pent-up regrets of a lifetime come pouring out as the characters try to piece together some workable way to go on in the face of the simultaneous feelings of heartache and anger they feel about what has happened, about what they let happen by acts of both commission and omission, about not stepping up to the meaning of events that led up to the tragedy.
Anyone who has dealt with serious loss in life will relate to the film. In fact, the chief criticism I have of the film is that it is entirely too real, too angst-provoking, too intense, so that it is difficult to sit to watch in its entirety for that very fact. One finds oneself squirming in recognition of just how well-etched and carefully characterized each of the principal figures in the drama seems to be, and how the events that transpire all seem to build inescapably toward this most horrible of conclusions. We watch as the events reel into overdrive, the initial spate of shock and denial buckling inexorably under the need to find some fault, to lay some blame, to put some tangible thread of purpose, reason, or rationality underneath what at base seems to be such a totally illogical and absolutely insane act; the passionate murder of one man by another over love gone wrong.
Briefly summarized, this is easily one of the most powerfully realistic and emotionally explosive movies of the last decade. It twists and plucks at your heart strings and then suddenly cuts them out with a blunt instrument, all without the benefit of anesthesia. It pulls no punches in presenting an unforgettable portrait of a family flailing desperately about in an effort to come to terms with the violent death of one of its members. It is not an easy movie to watch, but is an uncommon movie experience as it deals so honestly with the extremes of emotion associated with the anger, anguish, and loss so common to the human condition. I highly recommend it.