Customer Reviews

In the Bedroom [VHS]

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

It is hard to have enough good words to say regarding the level of excellence obvious in every frame of this painstakingly beautifully made drama. As is often the case these days, this work is the result of the efforts of an independent agent, showing how difficult it is to anything worthwhile done from within the confines of the Hollywood success-oriented movie-making monster. With a small budget and world-class actors, this economy-class effort shows that going in under budget doesn't necessarily lead one into mediocrity. Quite the contrary is true here. This movie shines through its poignant portrayal of a family reeling into existential crisis based on the savage murder of a family member, and deals superbly with the incredible range of emotions such an extraordinary event wreaks in its aftermath.

The terrific cast includes Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei, each of whom was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for the performances rendered here. This is a starkly realistic depiction of life in the raw, and doesn't soft-pedal any aspect of the wrenching personal experience such monumental loss tows in its wake. All the second-guessing, recriminations and pent-up regrets of a lifetime come pouring out as the characters try to piece together some workable way to go on in the face of the simultaneous feelings of heartache and anger they feel about what has happened, about what they let happen by acts of both commission and omission, about not stepping up to the meaning of events that led up to the tragedy.

Anyone who has dealt with serious loss in life will relate to the film. In fact, the chief criticism I have of the film is that it is entirely too real, too angst-provoking, too intense, so that it is difficult to sit to watch in its entirety for that very fact. One finds oneself squirming in recognition of just how well-etched and carefully characterized each of the principal figures in the drama seems to be, and how the events that transpire all seem to build inescapably toward this most horrible of conclusions. We watch as the events reel into overdrive, the initial spate of shock and denial buckling inexorably under the need to find some fault, to lay some blame, to put some tangible thread of purpose, reason, or rationality underneath what at base seems to be such a totally illogical and absolutely insane act; the passionate murder of one man by another over love gone wrong.

Briefly summarized, this is easily one of the most powerfully realistic and emotionally explosive movies of the last decade. It twists and plucks at your heart strings and then suddenly cuts them out with a blunt instrument, all without the benefit of anesthesia. It pulls no punches in presenting an unforgettable portrait of a family flailing desperately about in an effort to come to terms with the violent death of one of its members. It is not an easy movie to watch, but is an uncommon movie experience as it deals so honestly with the extremes of emotion associated with the anger, anguish, and loss so common to the human condition. I highly recommend it.

It has been said that the most tragic of life events is the death of a child: Tragic in the most grotesque and Classically Greek manner because it goes against nature for a parent to out live a child.
Todd Field's "In the Bedroom" is based on the short story, "The Killings" by Andre Dubus and though this is Field's first film it is obvious that he is now a director to be reckoned with.
Field has also assembled a dream cast in Sissy Spacek (Ruth), Tom Wilkinson (Matt), Marissa Tomei (Natalie)and Nick Stahl (Frank).
Ruth and Matt and son Frank live a quiet smalltown life in Camden, Maine. Ruth is a music teacher, Matt is the town's doctor and Frank is planning to go away to college to study Design/Architecture and having a summer fling, as he describes it, with Natalie who has two children and an ex husband, Richard (William Mapother). Ruth is not particularly happy with the affair and neither is Richard...for he kills Frank in a jealous rage.
Frank's murder is the turning point of the film and the focus changes to: dealing with grief, communication or lack thereof between couples, the justice of the legal system and how, as a friend, do u console the survivors of such a horrific crime?
"In the Bedroom" also showcases the talents of the actors especially Wilkinson ("The Full Monty")as Matt,who has spent the bulk of his life married to a woman he may or may not love but whose son was the light of his life. With Frank gone, what is to become of his marriage and his life? Sissy Spacek plays Ruth very quietly: all surface repose yet seething with anger and disgust. She never hits a false note and her scene with Natalie in the high school auditorium is stunning.
"In the Bedroom" is a major triumph for all concerned. It is a serious, adult film resonating, even vibrating with achingly heartfelt emotion...which comes from real pathos by way of truthful, well-written characters and situations.

What would you do if your son died a violent death at the hands of a man you know? What if you yourself, a doctor whose entire life is devoted to healing, were known throughout your community as a gentle man, an upholder of civil order?

This multi-layered drama poses not only this question, but several more. What happens when there's a lack of communication between close family members and a devastating event occurs? What do you do with anger that has been fomenting for many years and now finds it has no choice but to burst forth because of what has happened?

This is a long movie, but the powerful emotional vortex that forms as the movie progresses pulls you into it so deeply that it is a completely riveting experience. With a script this great, it's equally great to see such powerhouse performances. Sissy Spacek is a marvel. Her character's husband, played by Tom Wilkinson, a British stage actor, is superb. Marisa Tomei is perfectly cast as the young woman who, with the older couple, are at the center of the vortex. She's brilliant.

The actors who play the killer and the victim are also excellent, as are the supporting cast. This is a drama of emotional and moral choices in the extreme, and its power will stay with you LONG after the movie is over.

One of the very best of 2001, and definitely deserving of several Oscar nominations.

Repeated viewings of IN THE BEDROOM, whether they are in the theater or on the now available DVD, only serve to reinforce the initial impression that this film is one of the finest complete creations to come out of Hollywood in a long time. Beginning with Andre Dubus' story 'Killings', to the screenplay, to the subtleties of director Todd Fields, to the cinematography (the extraordinary opening sequences in the fields of hay with the towering trees' noisy leaves setting the scene for the sensitive love rendezvous), to the exemplary performances by Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl, Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson plus a supporting cast of fine actors, to one of the most brilliant musical scores ever created for a movie - this little film has everything. The idea of introducing the title in an early conversation about catching lobsters, of using the Balkan a cappella songs to wind through the tale, of addressing a tough subject for most audiences and doing it all with such finesse and aplomb is staggering. For this viewer this was easily the best film of 2001. I hope Fields will regroup this amazing cast and production crew and give us another film of this quality.

"In the Bedroom" is a classic example of our deteriorating attention span in today's culture. It moves slowly and deliberately, and apparently there are those who just can't focus for that long. Looking at other reviews, there are also apparently those who can't tell the difference between a cliche and an authentically acted tale of everyday people in extraordinary circumstances; the story told here is not as important as the way it's told. "In the Bedroom" is one of those rare smallish dramas that makes the viewer feel like a fly on the wall, and that's one reason some viewers don't get it; they find real life boring, and expect (and need) explosions, nude scenes, gore, and filth to make them feel something.

In short, this is an exquisite film for people who really love film and aren't looking for pure escapism. In a sense it's a cousin of "Ordinary People," but without the histrionics. Every move and every word in this film feels right. Worth repeated viewing to those who can still pay attention to this kind of thing.

This movie was extremely well done-specifically in it's portrayal
of the effects of the death of a child on a marriage and how it effects your relationship with others. Based on reading press releases and newspapers,I expected the focus to be more on the relationship between Frank and the older woman and Frank's parent's reaction to it. I felt sort of [mislead]/manipulated by the press releases on the focus of the movie (which is the reason for my 4, instead of 5 star rating). Having recently experienced the loss of a son about Frank's age, would have waited to see this until a later time, had I known. The press releases portray the focus of the movie to be the affair/relationship between Frank and the older woman and how the parent react to it-not the actual focus. It's probably not highlighted because it wouldn't attract as many people to see the movie (profound grief is not real sexy). As I said above, speaking from personal experience, the movie is an extremely accurate portrayal. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson superbly portray their characters.

Actor Todd Field (whose off-key presence can best be seen in Eyes Wide Shut) makes his directorial debut with this low-key but, in the end, tragically devastating examination of love, family, and murder in a small town Maine fishing village. Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek play a married couple (and are totally believable as a loving couple who have started to get a little too used to each other) who are concerned when their intelligent but niave (and, at times, rather narcisstic) son Nick Stahl gets involved with an older woman (Marisa Tomei, still as cute as in My Cousin Vinny but now with a heart-breakingly inner sadness) with two children and an abusive husband. Set against the beautiful landscape of New England, the film tells how these five personalities come together in a storm of exploding emotions that, in the end, will leave two of them dead and will force everyone to confront that lies that they've spent their lives leading. Nonflashy but haunting, the film draws much of its power from its actors. Stahl and Tomei are affecting and Sissy Spacek proves herself to be one of our best character actresses (gone from this chilling performance are any signs of the Carrie or the Coal Miner's Daughter). However, the film belongs to English actor Wilkinson who is thoroughly convincing as an archetypical American everyman; a middle-aged, blandly friendly man who has spent years holding back his emotions and finally, in the twilight of his life, is forced into actions that will make it impossible for all of the film's characters to ever go back to their previous existences. All-in-all, a devastatingly sublte film where the power is to be found in the heart-rendering subtexts that flow through the film. This is a film where its often important to pay attention to what the character's don't say. As such, it's a challenging film and as such, there's a lot of people who can't stand it.

It's truly humorous how worked up people get about disliking this film. I was recently at a party where I mentioned that "In the Bedroom" was one of the few movies I'd seen last year that actually didn't disappear from my mind mind the minute I left the theater. Certainly, it was the only film whose characters I still thought about (as if they were members of my own family) and whose often haunting images (curtesy of director Todd Field whose low budget is apparent in the grainy but strangely beautiful and moody images of the Maine countryside) could still be pictured almost crystal clear. The other guests were scandalized to hear that I had loved this film. "It was too dark!" they complained. "It was too long! And anyone could have seen what was going to happen!" (Which is true but still misses the point of the film. The tragedies, yes, can be predicted by a halfway intelligent viewer because the film is so carefully constructed and realistically presented that the actions become unavoidable. That doesn't rob them of their haunting power and when one hears that "predictable" cannard, remember there is a difference between the reality of In the Bedroom and the "plot-by-the-numbers" approach of more crowd pleasing films like Pearl Harbor or Titanic.) Anyway, I soon pointed out that, for a film that apparently wasn't any good, it had somehow managed to stick in everyone else's mind as well. If a film was still capable of drawing that strong of an outraged reaction, could it really be called a "failure?" Perhaps, I went on, the real problem you have with this film is that it didn't hold your hand and gently explain all the subtext inherent in the story. Maybe if it had made all of its themes explicitly obvious while still pretending to make the audience "look closer" (as in the similar but far more obvious American Beauty), you wouldn't feel so insulted. At this point, I got a quick lesson is avoiding empty beer bottles but that's another story. The story here is "In the Bedroom," one of the most powerful films in recent years, even if its going to take another couple of years for that to become apparent.

"In the Bedroom" is a quietly disturbing movie about the Fowlers, a Maine couple played by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson. They have a young, college-age son who's having a "summer fling" with an older woman (Marisa Tomei), who can't seem to shake her bothersome ex (William Mapother, cousin of Tom Cruise). When the Fowlers' son is murdered, the parents are distraught, outraged, and eventually point fingers at each other. The legal system doesn't seem to be much help, either. The rest of the movie finds both parents struggling to move on, but the memories of their dead son haunt them at every turn. Saying more will reveal spoilers which I won't mention. Spacek, Wilkinson, and Tomei give intense, career-best performances that richly deserved their Oscar nominations. I was most impressed by Wilkinson, a British actor who reaches deeply into his New England role. But the spotlight ultimately belongs to director Todd Field, who sucessfully directed the film which could have easily been a generic made-for-Lifetime TV movie. "In the Bedroom" is a dialogue-driven drama that has minimal action and may be too dry for some tastes. But if you're looking for a movie that will shake your foundations without resorting to cheap thrills, this film will do the job.

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.

This movie opens normally enough - a middle class family, consisting of Dr. Matt Fowler, his wife Ruth, a music teacher, and their architecture student son, is spending the son's summer vacation together. During this summer vacation, the son Frank begins dating an older woman, Natalie, estranged from her husband and raising her two sons.

About forty minutes into the film, however, things go violently wrong. Frank is murdered by his girlfriend's ex-husband, and from this moment on, all normalcy leaves the film. It is also at this point, however, that the movie takes on a beautifully realized melancholy, and truly becomes the film that has received so much critical acclaim.

After Frank's murder, the film centers around the grief of Dr. and Mrs. Fowler. Dr. Fowler feels, and displays, his grief quietly. Tom Wilkinsons is brilliant as the man who, while obviously grief-stricken, is still trying to get on with his ordinary life.

Sissy Spacek as Mrs. Fowler is the epitome of quiet rage. She manages to infuse the simplest of acts - smoking a cigarette, watching her husband pour himself a drink - with an angry desparation that is simmering just beneath the surface. This anger is shockingly realized in a moment where Mrs. Fowler is approached by an apologetic Natalie, and slaps her brutally, only to resume her work as if nothing important has just occurred.

The film was also beautifully shot. Immediately following Frank's death, rather than succumbing to the soap opera cliches of excessive crying, the melancholy is displayed through very brief vignettes that fade in and out - a sleeping Mrs. Fowler, Dr. Fowler seeing patients, mowing the lawn. They are normal enough scenes, but the blackness that surrounds them visually only echoes the blackness that surrounds them emotionally.

The soundtrack is stunningly bare. Rather than try to find a musical metaphor for grief, the directors chose to leave background music to a minimum. The majority of the music in the film is the beautiful work of the chorus which Mrs. Fowler directs.

Ultimately, the quiet grief and rage that Dr. and Mrs. Fowler are feeling erupts, and they express their true feelings to each other, in an attempt to place blame and make sense of this murder. When it does erupt, the film takes a final drastic, and yet fitting turn.

I highly recommend this movie. I don't think it's possible to see it and not be touched by it.