The Door in the Floor
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Movie Reviews of The Door in the Floor
Movie Review: (3.5 STARS) Excellent Acting of Bridges in Uneven Adaptaion of (Typically) John Irving Drama
Summary: 4 Stars
Whether you like John Irving or not, you must admit the great acting from Jeff Bridges, four-time Oscar nominee who should have win one or two already. In `Door in the Floor' he shows another excellent acting only he can do, which realizes two kinds of personalities in one character Ted Cole, essentially hopelessly selfish womanizer and amiable father of a lovely daughter. Frankly I thought the film itself, for all its moments, was not so good as some reviewers say. But to see Jeff Bridges doing the real professional job is alway a welcome thing.
Like any Irving novels, the story of `Door in the Floor' is eventful, often exaggeratedly so. It's basically about one family including successful writer Ted Cole (Bridges) his wife Marion (Kim Basinger), and their daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning, sister of Dakota) While the married couple is living separately for the reasons suggested in the opening, a young assistant Eddie who wants to be a writer is hired by Ted. It sounds like 'Wonder Boys,' but the course of their change is more colorful than the life of Michael Douglas.
Yes, anyone who knows some rules about this type of drama can tell what will happen to the family, or at least can sense that something will happen to the family which has already started to fall part. But as it is John Irving, whose previous filmed adaptations include `The Cider House Rules' and `The World According to Garp,' what happens is sometimes extraordinary. Young Eddie not only falls in love with Marion; Ruth witnesses their making love. Ted sketches his mistress Mrs. Vaughn (Mimi Rogers) posing naked (and really naked on screen) who causes major havoc when their relations are over. And the results are certainly funny to see.
[GREAT ACTING & UNEVEN TONE] But for all its excellent acting from Bridges and Basinger, the film's uneven tone is doing harm to the film itself. Ted tells Eddie that one of the secrets of being good writer is to manipulate the readers. Right, and surely Ted (and Bridges) knows the secret; Basinger knows it; newcomer Jon Foster as Eddie also shows the sign of knowing it, only director Tod Williams seems to forget it when he needs it most. In short, why does the film need a silly smock and squid ink when Bridges is already perfectly in character? Or why so many nudities when mere suggestion is more effective? And why unnecessary flashbacks when Jeff Bridges' superb monologues are much more convincing?
But perhaps I am demanding too much. Perhaps this is because I am not a big fan of John Irving novels. People don't say `The World According to Garp' (my favorite) is the best John Irving adaptation, but still I prefer the Robin Williams film to which I can relate more comfortably. There are many emotions in `Door in the Floor' and thanks to the great works from the actors the film is often funny and touching, but these emotions are often presented very awkwardly with full frontal nudity of Mrs. Vaughn or graphic bed scenes of Eddie and Marion. I do not hate them, but still believe that they only hide the film's crucial symbolism or more important part of it, which is called `Door in the Floor.'
Movie Review: A discreetly captivating piece on grief
Summary: 4 Stars
Adaptations of Irving novels have always been problematic (at least in my own experience). 'The Cider House Rules' was clumsily executed while 'Simon Birch' can barely be called a worthwhile flim. Writer/director Tod "Kip" Williams has broken the Irving curse with a film based on not an entire novel, but the first third of Irving's 'A Widow for One Year,' based on the notion that this section's three central characters are all capable of maintaining an interesting film.
Williams turned out to be absolutely right. In adapting only the first, self-sufficient third of the sprawling life portrait, Williams avoids having to remove crucial moments and contrain the ever-important cycle of life. Irving's own poeticism is intact, as well, since there is no need to drastically restructure or slice-and-dice dialogue.
'The Door in the Floor' is a rumination on grief. Its main characters --Ted (Jeff Bridges) and Marion (Kim Basinger) Cole-- each represent the various reactions to death in the family. In this case, Marion is the half of the couple that is hit the hardest by the death of her beloved sons in an exhaustingly emotional car crash. One of the film's most brilliant shots is of Basinger's eyes, staring cold into a distance of unfathomable lengths, a distance not recognizable to those who gravitate around her empty shell of a body. Here we see she cannot manage to move on with her life, her soul drained by depression.
Ted, on the other hand, seems to be alive and well, full of heart and creativity, still thriving as "an entertainer of children" who "likes to draw." But Bridges maintains that Ted is the half of the couple that attempts to move on yet knows that there will always be a piece of himself missing, whether he'd like to admit it or not. The third party in 'The Door in the Floor' is young Eddie O'Hare (Jon Foster), who is hired by Ted more or less as a pawn in his marriage's separation rather than an assistant. Eddie resembles one of the Coles' two sons and ends up in a steamy affair with Marion that is borderline incestuous.
Initially, 'The Door in the Floor' is elevated by great performances. Jeff Bridges turns out perhaps his best performance, capturing every nuance in Ted, culminating in the telling of his sons' deaths as if reading allowed one of his own children's books. This monologue is so perfectly detailed with puncturing subtlety that his words grow to be heart-poundingly emotional, full of subtext and gravity. Kim Basinger also turns out nomination-worthy work as Marion, almost literally climbing into her character's psyche of stone through her sole vulnerability, both aspects of Marion that are conveyed with precision. Jon Foster and Mimi Rogers, as Ted's needy nude model and mistress, are both very capable and manage to leave an impression. The film's further emotional weight is complemented by an elegant score and caressed by well-composed camera work.
Movie Review: Trying to Resolve the Insoluble Loss of the Past
Summary: 4 Stars
John Irving's A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR was an epic, sprawling story of one woman's crisis, collapse and redemption, and though the story span some 35 years it was tight enough in the novel to make an extraordinary movie. Director Tod Williams elected to take one summer out of that book, manipulate it into a full length movie, and what results is a story about a man rather than a woman: the results are a mixed bag. If you have read the book, be prepared to see a story that is like a page roughly torn from the whole.
Ted (Jeff Bridges) and Marion (Kim Basinger) are a couple in the process of finally separating after a long marriage: Marion has been an emotional paralytic since the accidental death of her their college sons many years ago and Ted has become a scallywag adulterous alcoholic in an attempt to escape the past crisis and the present state of Marion. Ted, a writer and illustrator of children's books, invites a young Exeter student Eddie (Jon Foster) to their home on Long Island to be his 'driver assistant' (apparently his alcoholism prevents his driving) and to offer a plaything for Marion. Eddie arrives, finds the family in shreds, including the young daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning) who has failed to fill the hole left by the death of the sons and who is ignored my Marion, and witnesses not only Ted's smarmy affair with an aging wealthy neighbor (Mimi Rogers) whom he 'uses' as a nude model for his illustrations, but also becomes enamored with Marion who will be his first coming of age sexual experience.
These are all games people play and the games have consequences. The manner in which these four people react to the summer of incidents serves as the focal point of this story.
The film suffers from a depression that extends into the audience unresolved and that is where this reviewer takes umbrage with the excerpt from a good book. To the DVD's advantage there is an added conversation with John Irving which informs us that he feels this 'adaptation' works better on film then had the entire story been told. Sounding a bit like a plug for viewers to buy his book to see what happens next is forgivable: Irving speaks intelligently and cohesively and definitely makes up for the flaws in the film.
The acting is good if monochromatic and static. Oddly, the only one for whom we have concern is Ted - a sad statement given his despicable character. But the reason for that concern is the portrayal by Bridges who is wholly immersed in this role. Kim Basinger starts flat and stays there: perhaps casting someone other than Jon Foster as her surrogate son/lover would have helped her plight. A good film that could have been so much better. Grady Harp, December 2004
Movie Review: Kim Basinger knocks at the door to the Oscar again!
Summary: 4 Stars
I was very moved by this movie, dispite the fact that it had not tried to be depressing, and it was the right tone of sadness without overwhelming me. Just as Kim Basinger's would go:" Eddie, you are so serious for your age." She said that because she's numb and overly tramatized by the death of her teenage sons. This is about letting go of what has been taken away or lost and close that door forever.
Both Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges sort of gave the tramatic event a silent treatment and it had build a wall between them. It's unavoidable that an ignorant youngster like Jon Foster would provoke those old feelings when he asked Basinger about the deceased boys. She instantly turned to stone just like the day they died in the accident. Even Jeff Bridges had been avoiding "the door in the floor" for years. They just haven't dealt with it and memories will always come back and haunt them.
Jeff Bridges is great, and he deserves extra credit for doing several scenes fully naked. His character's state of mind is the opposite of Basinger. He uses casual sex as a form of pleasure to escape from his depressing life. He feels obligated to stay with his wife when they no longer have any passion towards each other. Although he had constantly avoided opening the door to the floor, he ultimately does so, because he had to accept what he can't changed.
Kim Basinger finally landed a great part again since her stunning role in L.A. Confidential. I enjoyed her a great deal in this film, because she had gone from so sad to letting herself go and sexually connects herself with Jon Foster. It was so mesmerizing to see her breaking down into tears when she was making love with Foster. Without a single line to deliver, her face expressed all her pain and sadness. She thought it was a mistake to have a baby(Elle Fanning) again after the teenage boys died. It didn't help them save the marriage, and she had stayed too long, even when she had lost all her feelings. She ultimately abandoned everyone including her daughther, because she didn't want to be a bad mother. I trully hope she will get her best actress award with this performance. Her final scene in the movie when she touches the face of Bridges before driving away was also a memorable part of this film. The two lead had almost no dialogues together. This shows how distant they have became, and they were no longer happy together.
Movie Review: Dangerous Secrets Are The Ones You Don't Admit To
Summary: 4 Stars
Ted Cole: "And so the little boy was born, and he was happy. And his mommy was happy, too. Although she told the boy, at least once every day, "Don't ever, not ever, never, never, never, open the door in the floor." But of course, he was only a little boy. If you were that little boy, wouldn't you want to open that door in the floor?"
Ted Cole is relating his new children's story. He is a child's book author. This paragraph gives us a glimpse and a sense of the strange and dangerous images/thoughts that emanate from this man. We first meet Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) when he is showing a picture of his new summer assistant to his wife, Marion (Kim Basinger). She, of little emotional reaction and few words, glances at the picture and wonders "What will this boy do?" In fact this boy, Eddie (Jon Foster) will accomplish a great deal. He walks into a marriage that is dissolving, and he discovers that much of his job will be to drive Ted, who lost his license to drinking under the influence. Some of his time will be spent re-typing the daily manuscript of the book Ted is writing. Some of his time will be spent caring for Ruth, the young child born to Ted and Marion. Some of his time will be spent having sex with Marion. And, the rest of the time will be spent trying to understand what is happening in this household. He does know that the couple's two sons were killed ten years prior and it seems this marriage has been teetering since that time.
Jeff Bridges shows the agility and immense acting ability he has in this movie. A man with many secrets, trying to find the love he has lost with many degrading affairs. Kim Basinger belays little emotion except in her face and in her voice. She is a woman who becomes mute with depression upon remembrance of her two dead sons. Jon Foster, who should be a little over his head with the acting abilities of those who surround him, holds his own. A movie with many hidden secrets and hidden agendas. A movie of love lost and families lost, and what is to be done with this little girl, Ruth who so loves her parents? "A Door In The Floor" don't go down it; don't explore it, because if you do you will find the secrets at the bottom. And, you don't want that, do you? Recommended. prisrob