In the Bedroom
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Movie Reviews of In the Bedroom
Movie Review: Shattering and Memorable
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the best film of 2001, regardless of the Academy's choice of the sappy and predictable "Beautiful Mind". If there's one thing "In the Bedroom" is not, it's predictable. This is a devastating portrait of what one unexpected tragedy does to an affluent but somewhat dysfunctional family. And the lengths to which they go to address it lead to unexpected devastation for everyone involved. This modern Greek tragedy, the likes of which are rarely seen in American film, was clearly made outside of the current Hollywood "studio" system that peddles the pap we've come to expect. I've seen the film several times and it gets better with each viewing. While I will admit to finding it a bit cold upon first viewing, I've since changed my opinion due to the richness of characters and subtext. This is not a film that spells out its intentions in neon. The viewer is required to think and come to his own conclusions rather than sit back and be bombarded with the obvious. What a relief! And the performances are richly textured masterpieces all. Marisa Tomei has never been better as the soon-to-be-divorced girlfriend, and she is the film's primary source of heart and soul. Sissy Spacek, in a justifiably acclaimed performance (Halle Berry? Come on!), etches a stark portrayal of a woman so disconnected from her feelings and family that she is utterly at a loss to deal with the oncoming tragedy. Her limitations are ultimately her undoing, and her downfall breaks the heart. Tom Wilkinson is the revelation here, a truthful, subtle and textured performance of a decent man thrust into a devestating dilemma. His character really is the core of the story, and one wonders how this performance didn't receive acclaim equal to Spacek's because he matches her every step of the way. His final transformation brings the shocking story to it's logical conclusion. "In the Bedroom" is adult, literary entertainment, and director Todd Field shows an adeptness with both actors and theme. This ultimately moving film will have you returning again and again, aching for this shattered family and wanting to wrap your arms around them. A very human film.Movie Review: Murder Turns an Ordinary Family Life Upside Down
Summary: 5 Stars
Matt and Ruth Fowler (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek) chose to live an ordinary existence in the beautiful small city of Camden, Maine. They were willing to make the sacrifices necessary for Matt to build up his medical practice, but not to live a truly challenging life. The marriage is not dysfunctional, but also does not seem passionate. The Fowlers are comfortable with their blandness and desire for nothing more. Their one child Frank (Nick Stahl) aspires to become an architect, but is currently involved with Natalie (Marisa Tomei), a not yet divorce older woman, and mother of two young boys. The husband Richard (William Mapother) is impulsively prone to outbreaks of violence. Wild and uninhibited sex binds the couple together in a relationship that is doomed to end. A young man may find a woman about twelve years older as seductively alluring at age 19, but this is usually not the case when he is 29 and she is 41. The educational differences between the college bound Frank and the blue collar Natalie will also only increase as the years go by.Dr. Matt Fowler vicariously enjoys the sex his son has with Natalie. Matt's warnings therefore to Frank are not blunt and unambiguous. Furthermore, Matt and Ruth don't know how to say no to Frank and even put together a swing set for Natalie's boys in their own backyard. This act of enabling inevitably does little to
help Frank confront the reality of his predicament. Richard ultimately shoot and kills Frank. The former, however, comes from a well to do family and has access to very good legal assistance.
The events that take place from here on end build up to a climax where Matt must decide whether to take the law into his own hands. We also wonder if the tragedy will either bring the Fowlers closer to together or destroy the marriage. Both Spacek and Wilkinson are almost certain to earn an Academy Award nomination. The selection of actors for "In the Bedroom" is near perfect. There isn't a weak cast member in the film. The Director Todd Fuller admirably puts together a story that is both riveting and disturbing. This adult movie deserves five stars. "In the Bedroom" should be on everyone's must see list.
Movie Review: WOW! What an incredible movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was not what I expected I only saw it because #1 I love Sissy Spacek #2 wanted to see why it warranted so many Academy Award nominations and #3 Wanted to see if Sissy did a better performance than Halle Barry did in "Monster's Ball".I walked away with a new found respect and interest in actor Tom He did an EXCELLENT job as the father fully convincing for me, Sissy's performance was good too, but I have to say I think Halle did deserve the Oscar between the 2, Marisa Tomei didn't have that big of a role after a point in the movie but what scenes she was in was pretty, but nothing PROFOUND.
This movie had the writing on the wall from the very beginning you knew it was not going to be some uplifting tale. The atmosphere and setting was PERFECT.. Maine was beautiful, calm and peaceful to set the tone of a lifestyle that this young man had grown up in. A Father (who is the town Doctor)that loved him and a Mother (who was the local high school music teacher) both seeming to be understanding that there son was involved with a Older woman with 2 children, although it is evident that Sissy Spacek does not approve of this relationship.
I never really did understand if Marisa was divorced already or in the process of one with her (ex?)husband. I don't want to go into to much detail on the plot because I sometimes think you enjoy a movie more when you don't know WHAT to expect. The grieving in this movie is intense and very real, the frustrations are tangible. The Director did a INCREDIBLE job with letting you feel the emotions to EVERYONE in this movie not just the principal people I mean I KNEW how the friends felt, the nurse at the Doctors office I think that everyone did such a great job in this movie that it rates right up there with some of the best I've ever seen.
Beware it does get to a point where it slows down but don't give up on it, you never really know just how much time passes between the death and the end of the movie, but by the time the credits roll it all fits in very well.
Respectfully Reviewed
Movie Review: What Goes On Behind Closed Doors
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Todd Field helped adapt Andre Dubus' story for the screenplay of "In the Bedroom" and by the end of the film I knew I had been in the company of master film craftsmen.
Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek play Matt and Ruth Fowler. Matt is the community physician in the small Maine lobstering community of Camden. Nick Stahl plays their only son, Frank, who is preparing for graduate school and would still look at place in high school. Frank is having a running-through-flowered-meadows romance with Marisa Tomei as Natalie Strout.
Natalie is noticeably older than Frank and comes not only with two young boys, but also the baggage of Richard, a belligerent ex-husband played with seething menace by William Mapother, whose work I knew best from television in shows from Lost to CSI.
Ruth wants Frank to concentrate on his education and can hardly restrain her disapproval at his relationship with Natalie. Her up and coming son doesn't need an attachment to an older divorcee with two children, and the perceptive Ruth understands that her husband likes having juicy Natalie around better than he understands it himself. Matt knows Ruth is correct - Frank should be concentrating on more permanent things than what appears a summer fling - but he doesn't want to interfere in his grown son's fun, and he thinks Ruth has too often interfered with their son's fun in the past.
A different movie may have focused on the ex-husband and his threats to Natalie and her new young lover. By instead focusing on the pillar-of-the-community Fowler family it is more jarring when tragedy strikes, and it leaves us more emotionally raw and primed for what happens in the closing act.
In tone I found the first half of the movie similar to Moonlight Mile, with Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Jake Gyllenhaal, but the final sequence of this film enters territory I didn't expect for these characters. I am not often surprised and entertained by a movie, but "In The Bedroom" succeeds on all counts.
Movie Review: Complex and realistic.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is most definitely one of the best motion pictures of 2001. There are not very many Hollywood films these days that can be as brilliant and unique as IN THE BEDROOM. Most of the successful Hollywood films these days are either those romantic-comedies or the powerhouse action/adventure films with tons of awesome mind-blowing computerized special effects. But IN THE BEDROOM is a solid drama. There is hardly any comedy and definitely no computerized special effects. This is a total adult film--do not let your children see this! Strictly for the mature audiences only.I saw this film when I was in New York City recently and I am planning to go see it again once it hits theaters in my hometown area, for it was THAT good. IN THE BEDROOM is about a dysfunctional family, but it's not the crazy, hilarious family type that you see on TV shows like "Malcolm in the Middle", it's more of a dysfunctional family with serious tramatic problems. Ruth (Sissy Spacek), her husband, Matt (Tom Wilkinson), and their college student son, Frank (Nick Stahl), live in the quiet hometown of Camden, Maine. Matt only stays in the marraige with Ruth because he loves Frank deeply and Frank means everything in the world to him. Soon, Frank gets involved in an affair with a young (but, much older than him), woman named Natalie (Marisa Tomei), who's got two children and a dangerous ex-husband who soon becomes jealous of Frank and murders him in a rage; leaving Frank's parents devastated from their loss. Now, since Frank is gone, the parents have to learn to deal without him. And Matt starts wondering if his marraige to Ruth is worth anything now that Frank is gone.
IN THE BEDROOM is a beautiful, but sad film. It captures your heart and captivates it. The acting by the entire cast and supporting cast is absolutely superb. The script is nothing short of brilliant. It is a very long film, but every single second of it is well-worth it. IN THE BEDROOM deserves the Oscar for Best Picture!