In the Bedroom

Rating:
Summary: Family Matters
Review: I saw "In The Bedroom" about a year ago, and recently watched it again, and the story still transpires into an interesting film. The acting is brilliant, and the directing is top notch. For an involving drama, if you have the time and patience to watch, this is a throughly entertaining film.

Rating:
Summary: DISTURBING AND BRILLIANT
Review: This flick was nominated for five Oscars in 2001 including best picture. Having just watched it, I'm surprised it didn't win. The subject is emotionally searing. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson play Matt and Ruth Fowler, whose staid lives are shattered by the murder of their young son Frank. Marisa Tomei is his girlfriend Natalie whose ex-husband kills Frank in a sudden, violent rage. The action escalates after Frank's funeral as the Fowlers try to resume lives which were once so safe and secure. Matt mows the yard and goes back to work too soon. Ruth resumes her teaching duties but home life revolves around drinking tea, watching too much tv, and chain smoking. Both are shell shocked. Emotions are raw and the grief almost consumes them. Then Natalie's testimony reveals she did not actually witness the gunshot which killed Frank - the murderer will most likely get off with a few years on a manslaughter charge. What ensues is shocking as the quiet, introspective Matt decides to acquiesce to Ruth's desire for justice. This is a very well acted albeit disturbing film. Spacek, who earned a best actress Oscar for Coal Miner's Daughter, proves again why she belongs in acting's upper echelon with Meryl Streep. Tomei is great and Wilkinson gives a fine, nuanced performance. This stuff happens everyday, re Peterson, Hacking murders, etc. and you gotta wonder how the families cope. There are far reaching consequences with any murder - this film explores them all.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely not for everyone
Review: I'm so glad Hollywood can still make movies like this. The story (and especially the superb acting) give us a mature, complex and subtle look at two relationships. In one we have a love triangle that turns dangerous, and in the other we have what seems to be on the surface, an average, middle age loving couple. But later you discover there's a lot of pain and frustration that has been bubbling deep beneath the surface for years -- very true to life.

The plot takes you in an unusual direction for a Hollywood movie, and the two big scenes (especially the climactic scene), are surprising for such a soberly-paced and subtle story.

The pacing is slow, and the ending is full of potential interpretations. When I watched it late one night, I thought the ending was simply unresolved, almost as if the author and director weren't sure where they had taken us, but by morning, I had a completely different interpretation, with a very definite opinion about the surviving relationship.

The way this was originally marketed, I expected a different movie than the one I watched. I was expecting something far more suspenseful, but what I watched was slower and more true to life. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised. Highly recommended for those who enjoy thoughtful and subtle plots. Not recommended at all if you think you have a short attention span or if you're looking for an action/suspense thriller.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most disturbing American films ever.
Review: Stylistically, Todd Field's "In the Bedroom" seems to belong to the same elegant, tasteful tradition as such films as "Ordinary People" and "The Accidental Tourist." All the better to lull the audience until the time when he starts detonating bombs under their seats. Unlike the two aforementioned films, which depict tasteful, Waspy types dealing with the aftermath of tragedy, "In the Bedroom" exposes the raw nerve endings that are revealed, in all their bloody glory, during and just after an unspeakable and unexpected tragedy. Furthermore, its ending--though shot in the same low-key way as the rest of the film-- is anything but quiet and tasteful, leaving audiences with a Pandora's box full of disturbing questions. Adding immeasurably to the film's impact are the performances, so honest and forthright that they break our hearts. As the parents of the victim, Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson are mesmerizing in their raw, desolate grief. The scene in which they start blaming each other for the tragedy is a high-water mark for acting in an American movie. Nick Stahl, naive and innocent as a golden retriever puppy, is almost unbearably poignant as their son, and Marisa Tomei is superb as the vulnerable, confused young mother with whom Stahl has a romantic fling. Capping the ensemble is William Mapother, unforgettable as the ultimate conscienceless creep, all the more frightening for being--at least outwardly--a normal, everyday kind of guy. The depths of hatred and violence that seethe below the surface of everyday people are very much the subject of "In the Bedroom," and its ending--which is very far from a resolution--will haunt you for days.

Rating:
Summary: POWERFUL BUT FLAWED CLASSIC
Review: You don't get much better acting than what you get from Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson in this powerful, tragic, yet flawed movie. Director Todd Field uses silences brilliantly; common scenes of normal activities shading the shadow of guilt and agony.
Tom Wilkinson plays Dr. Matt Fowler, a likeable, down to earth physician who takes his lunch every day just to visit his son at his job catching lobsters. Sissy Spacek plays Ruth, his wife, a seemingly judgmental and even bitter woman, who doesn't approve of her son's relationship with an older, estranged woman and her two sons. Nick Stahl is Frank, the son, whose blooming maturity inhibits him from following his heart and telling the truth. He can't seem to admit that his relationship with Natalie is anything more than a summer fling.
The movie takes a violent and tragic turn, and the results are devastating for the three remaining characters. Marisa Tomei is Natalie, afraid to face her husband's wrath or do anything about it.
The movie has many, many powerful and gut-wrenching moments. The acting is superb. Wilkinson who really has the most screen time plays the father with such restraint, warmth and compassion that you feel like he IS Matt Walker. He is matched by Sissy Spacek's most powerful performance. Spacek uses her body, her eyes, her speeches to convey the anger and guilt she feels and refusing to get on with her life. Tomei gives her best performance as Natalie, a "good" woman, caught in the trap of loving someone so much younger, and wanting to be forgiven in her role in Frank's death. This performance validates the surprise Oscar she won for My Cousin Vinny. William Mapother as Natalie's estranged husband oozes deception, self-serving and empty individual, feeling no remorse for his deed. Celia Weston who plays Katie, the wife of one of the Fowler's friends, is memorable in a scene in which she and Ruth are going through Katie's family album, and she slips with an unintentionally hurtful remark. Lots of power between these two men.
So where does this movie go wrong? It's MACBETH like ending seems so unreal compared to the rest of the movie. Without spoiling its ending, it seems so out of character for the man we've spent two hours with, and the ending itself lacks a true emotional impact. It seems like the movie just ends.
Even with this, however, IN THE BEDROOM is powerful American moviemaking, with an assured director and a talented cast. It stays with you.