The Door in the Floor
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Movie Reviews of The Door in the Floor
Movie Review: "Don't ever, not ever, never, never, never, open the door in the floor."
Summary: 4 Stars
2004's THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR was like a moviegoer's fruit smoothie - put in one part divorce story, two parts tawdry affair, a teaspoon of quirky humor, make sure Kim Basinger sleeps with someone, then blend until smooth and thick. It was a great story, and as far as I've heard adapted from a book, which I have not read - so I won't be one to complain on and on about things lost in translation.
Jeff Bridges gives an outstanding performance as oddball children's writer Ted Cole, who in the first few minutes of the movie sits down next to his wife Marion (Basinger) and states casually, "I think we should try separating." They have a routine to keep four-year-old daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning, who seems to have fallen victim of that rubbed-off stardom syndrome from older sister Dakota) in their lives as much as possible, but the simple fact is Ted is a much better parent; Marion is distracted, depressed, and "turns to stone" for hours at a time when thinking about a distressing tragedy that occurred with her sons Tim and Tom, who predeceased Ruth. Enter Eddie (Jon Foster), a seventeen-year-old Exeter student who aspires to be a writer. Ted takes him on as assistant, and the teen falls in love and begins to have an affair with Marion.
The story mainly follows this illicit relationship, with Ted more or less on the back burner. The interactions between the characters are great, and Eddie really seems to grow up during his summer apprenticeship, taking care of Ruth - whose performance is particularly striking because of her obsession with old photographs of Tim and Tom, the brothers before her who her mother would never let her forget. And while there isn't so much as a twist at the end, there is a tidbit of information about Marion's affair with Eddie that sheds more light on the notion that if an older woman seeks a relationship with a younger man, there's something off in her life, or maybe even in her mind.
THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR (is that metaphor I hear afoot?) is an emotional rollercoaster - often worth a few chuckles, at times very sad, and intriguing throughout its long run. Recommended... well, not for the whole family perhaps.
Movie Review: "Everything in fiction is a tool."
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Door in the Floor" stars Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger and is an adaptation of "A Widow for One Year" by John Irving. Bridges is a successful but philandering author of children's books, and Basinger is his wife, who has been numbed into inaction by the death of their teenaged sons years earlier in a car accident. After the accident, the couple have another daughter (Dakota Fanning's younger sister, Elle), but neither of them is really up to the task of raising her. The action takes place one summer when a young intern (Jon Foster) hired by Bridges enters their lives.
This movie is Tod William's second directorial effort, following "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole." His work is quite masterful, and he pulls some great performances from his talented cast. Bridges is often under-appreciated, and his acting here was very much overlooked; he should have been nominated for an Oscar. Basinger is also very good, in a world-weary way. In addition, the movie looks absolutely gorgeous and takes full advantage of locations in the Hamptons. It also has a timeless feel - I initially guessed that the film was supposed to be set in the 1960s. Little clues along the way suggested a more modern time era, but it wasn't until Jeff Bridges listens to a rap song on a car radio that it's completely apparent that the film takes place in the present.
I'm not particularly a John Irving fan; in fact, I started reading "A Widow for One Year" shortly after it was released and only made it 1/4 through the book. Furthermore, many adaptations of Irving's novels have tended to be either fussy ("Hotel New Hampshire") or twee ("Simon Birch"). Fortunately, "The Door in the Floor" is superior to these films, perhaps because it only presents the first 1/3 of the novel and focuses on just one story instead of the multi-plot colossuses in which Irving specializes. The plot ends up being a bit simple, but the movie is probably the better for it. Overall, "The Door in the Floor" is a terrific small film that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Movie Review: This couple took grieving to a whole different level.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is another fantastic movie that had slip through the cracks of greatness due to uncomfortable content. A few recent films have treated the dysfunction attendant upon the death of a child to a loving couple. A movie or two has also touched on the sexual relationship between an older woman and a younger man. `Door in the Floor,' based on John Irving's novel `Widow for a Year,' combines both subjects in a sometimes disturbing, always absorbing screenplay that has a superlative performance by Jeff Bridges and an excellent turn by Kim Basinger.
Since `The Graduate,' the possibility in films of a younger man/older woman theme has become as acceptable as the traditional reverse. In writer/director Tod Williams' (`The Adventures of Sebastian Cole') `Door in the Floor,' the young 16-year-old Eddie is played by Jon Foster (`Life as a House') with an annoying lack of charisma and animation. However, Kim Basinger as his love interest, Marion, a mother who has lost 2 sons about his age in an auto accident, for which she feels some responsibility, appropriately lacks animation because of her trauma, a kind of `Stepford' mother exorcising her demon by sleeping with a son's surrogate. That acting is believable even if her `method' may be thinking of her combat with a notorious Baldwin boy. If you are sensitive to such things, the movie deserves its R rating. There is male nudity, from the rear, and full frontal female nudity. The language is about what one would expect from an R rated movie.
`The Door In the Floor' is memorable for two big reasons. 1). Jeff Bridges due to his performance and 2).The very last scene, you will realize the full import of Ted Cole's world-view, and you'll see the treatment of his character in the movie in a completely new light. The laughs are thrown in at just the right moments, and the ending is as true as it gets. Sometimes, movies don't get hard-to-face endings right this film delivers it just fine.
Movie Review: TRACES OF ABSURDITY, BUT FULL MARKS FOR HARROWING DRAMA
Summary: 4 Stars
Structurally creative movies with dramatic shifts in tone are so difficult to find in these CGI-crazed times that I suspect The Door in the Floor may be remembered as a quirky offbeat film, with all its odious bells and whistles.
But it may bag academy awards for its lead characters, especially for Jeff Bridges who not only glimmers, he OWNS the film with his excellent screen presence.
The plot can be briefly summarized as a dire examination of a dysfunctional marriage between two rich people. Two messed-up rich people.
If you look close, you may find soft-spots of implausibility in the theme and a tendency to fall for cute, maudlin puffery such as cant-get-along parents mourning an accident, a young person's life changed forever by brief exposure to adult dysfunction, the friction and affection between an older mentor and the devout youngling, etc etc.
The narrative has its share of dark moments, some that may make you cringe. The last act becomes unexpectedly plot-heavy and the final shot is an idiotic literalization of an otherwise effective metaphor. Fortunately, the touch of light-hearted slapstick in the latter half helps with some respite.
I'd be lying if I said that such constant sardonic detachment didn't become tiresome for all its impressive formal rigor. But that rigor is precisely what's ingenious about the screenplay. It manages to beautifully peel the layers off its characters and offers revelations about their true natures. A truly bittersweet peep into the sphere of real-world families, especially those that're falling apart.
A gem as far as I am concerned, it gets my nod. Worth a try for people with an appetite for meaningful, offbeat cinema, but it may not resonate with you if a predictable run-of-the-mill entertainer is what you're after.
Movie Review: Jeff Bridges gives a great performance.
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Door in the Floor," based upon the first section of John Irving's book, "A Widow for One Year," is a very faithful, very well-acted adaptation. Since the section of the book was its best, the movie hits all the right notes of both humor and extreme sorrow.
Jeff Bridges, in particular, is spectatular as Ted Cole, an alcoholic, adulterous children's author whose marriage was left in shambles by a long-ago accident that killed his two sons. Kim Basinger plays Marion, his detached, shell-shocked wife.
The story takes place over the course of the summer that their marriage will end. Marion's distraught and immobile, walking through her life numb while also ignoring her young daughter. Ted, coming up with a way to get himself a driver and perhaps inspire Marion to come out of her funk, hires Eddie, a junior at Exeter, as his "writer's assistant."
Jon Foster plays Eddie, who is supposed to, I fear, be more innately sexy in nature or appealing than Foster plays him. Foster's portrayal captures Eddie's naivete moreso than anything else, and that's the film's chief disappointment, for Eddie is the character who carries the audience through the narrative.
Still, there's enough to like in the film that it overcomes its flaws.
Mimi Rogers and Donna Murphy also appear in smaller, yet key, roles in the film and are good. Elle Fanning, who plays Ruth, gives a credible performance, though at times her line delivery was a bit awkward. (In her defense, though, she's only about 6.)
And the plot runs along on enough pure Irving quirkiness to remain interesting. And the ending is still effectively devastating.