In the Bedroom Review
by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)February 19th, 2002
In the Bedroom (2001)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"I've had lots of girlfriends. Why is this any different?"
Starring Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl, William Mapother. Directed by Todd Field. Rated R.
In the Bedroom is one of the most honest films I've ever seen about death and grief. Vengeance is an integral part of its story, but there are no vigilantes and no heroes; there is no Sally Field in Eye for an Eye mode in sight. It is proof that the films that hit the hardest aren't always the ones that deal with superficially extraordinary events. Sometimes all you need is to look out the window to discover a different, devastating world.
The film uses the common approach of introducing a perfectly ordinary, happy middle-class family, then suddenly and mercilessly plunging them into terror and chaos. When we see the Fowlers at a picnick and, later, joking around in their bedroom, we get an almost idyllic sense of ordinary marital bliss. Ruth (Sissy Spacek), a schoolteacher, is mildly concerned over her playboy son Frank's (Nick Stahl) relationship with a just-separated older woman (Marisa Tomei), but the worries are glossed over by Frank's smooth rhetoric, and life goes on, for a while.
Then the Old Significant Other returns to the scene, brandishing a firearm and wanting his woman back. The cocky Frank gets in the way and is shot. It is here that we finally approach the real subject of In the Bedroom: the manner in which the Fowlers deal with their loss and the subsequent realization that justice is not going to be served because, as typically happens in these kinds of movies, there is not enough evidence to convict.
The film's structure consists of long stretches of silence punctuated by impossibly violent outbursts of emotion. Actor-turned-director Todd Field, best known for playing Tom Cruise's pianist friend in Eyes Wide Shut, deprives us of most of the conventional "big moments" you would expect to see: the screen fades to black, for example, as Dr. Matt Fowler, played by the amazing Tom Wilkinson, walks down the elementary school hallway to tell his wife what happened. The emotional payoffs we do get come in ways we don't expect: a blame-slinging confrontation between Matt and Ruth, a surprising encounter between Ruth and her late son's girlfriend, and, finally, a simple glance from Dr. Fowler that elegantly sums up the whole of In the Bedroom's emotional thrust.
Tom Wilkinson gives the film's highlight performance, an incredibly heartfelt piece of acting in a role that is the script's epicenter. It is Spacek, however, that has received the bulk of the critical attention, and it is deserved, though I still maintain that Wilkinson has to carry the movie on his shoulders. Marisa Tomei also garnered an Oscar nomination for her brief performance, and her most impressive moment comes in her aforementioned encounter with Spacek's Ruth.
Then there's the tricky matter of the ending. I don't mean the final scene, which is pitch-perfect understatement; it's the climax that precedes it that I had trouble buying into. Now, weeks later, I am still ambivalent. It's believable enough not to elicit groans, but there's something about it that just seems off, not quite in character, perhaps betraying the exquisite set-up that Field so painstakingly executed. But then, you may have an entirely different reaction. There's only one way to find out.
I quibble; it's my job. There's no reason not to see this movie. Now that it's gotten a Best Picture nomination, I suspect many more people will. It's certainly the quietest of this year's nominees, and the most human.
Grade: A-
Up Next: Impostor
©2002 Eugene Novikov
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
