Release Date: November 23, 2001
Starring: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, William Mapother
Directed by: Todd Field
Written by: Robert Festinger
Distributed by: Miramax Films
MPAA Rating: R (some violence, language)
There are movies where the reason for the title is patently obvious (thanks to Hollywood's mallet of reason, as a friend once put it) and then there are movies like Todd Field's In the Bedroom where the reason behind the title is somewhat murky. The most obvious conclusion for this film is that the title refers to the literal space of a bedroom and the goings-on within, but, as a character study, there is the lurking possibility that it also points to the darker recesses of the human mind, from which unspeakable acts are born.
The answer depends on how much credit the viewer is willing to give Field's film. It is sometimes difficult to accept In the Bedroom as a character study because the movie is extremely faithful to the artificial reality it creates, that of the small town of Camden, Maine. Camden is no more than a dot on a map, and Field spends considerable time indirectly essaying small-town life -- a lifestyle in which characters are not given to the sometimes preposterous melodrama that now fills the movies. The audience, and especially an audience of a character study, will want their characters larger than life, doing bold things and saying bolder things while doing it.
Of course, anyone who has seen In the Bedroom knows that the characters do and say things of great boldness -- just not the Arnold Schwarzenegger variety. Rather, the film's intent is, much like 1998's downplayed thriller A Simple Plan, to examine what happens to ordinary people under extraordinary circumstances. The characters the audience is given to work with aren't action megaheroes. They are a town of everymen -- in essence, an everytown for the audience.
Chief among them are Dr. Fowler (Tom Wilkinson, Shakespeare in Love) and his wife Ruth (Sissy Spacek, The Straight Story), whose grown son Frank (Nick Stahl, The Thin Red Line) is carrying on an increasingly serious relationship with an older woman. The beautiful but troubled Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei, What Women Want), who is separated but not yet divorced from her dirtball husband, eventually leads tragedy into Camden. Forced to confront issues that no decent human beings wish upon others, the Fowlers and other members of Camden must come to terms with their losses and contemplate unthinkable courses of action.
The film can be divided into three parts, and almost seasonally so. The first follows the Fowlers and the rest of Camden through a warm and almost blissful New England summer, which director Field shoots to capture its tranquil golden light. Credit Field for transporting the viewer to Maine in this first act, a move that makes the rest of the movie that much more effective.
The second section begins as the film moves into autumn, the stark gray colors of which follow the arc of the plot (things are getting bleak now, is the message) and work in direct contrast to the happier times of the summer past. The third act borders on the Maine winter, one which is imaginably harsh and just around the corner, and one which effectively defines the characters' actions -- these were people, who, three months ago, were sitting around a backyard barbecue watching their children play on a swing set.
It is the second act which is the poorest of the three, and the one that desperately needs replacing. Thankfully, the film is buoyed by strong performances from all quarters, including the two much-lauded leads of Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek. The Briton Wilkinson, in particular, effectively transforms the soft-spoken Dr. Fowler from a tired but content old man, eager to see the best for his son, into a man angry and filled with rage at the tragedy which has befallen the community of Camden. Spacek competently backs him up, although viewers should be careful to avoid giving her too many plaudits for a role that comes dangerously close to being just One Big Scene (too often a component of talked-about actresses' "best" performances).
Parts number one and three of the film are the strongest, joined weakly by the second act, but strung together nevertheless. Much is implied during the film's middle segment (in fact, Field shoots part of it in short bursts of scenery before fading to black, much as if the viewer were blinking while watching the movie, to capture the disconnected, moment-to-moment living that must certainly follow a tragedy), and the great success of the film will depend on how much the viewer is willing to forgive In the Bedroom for these omissions. Truthfully, it does not examine the impact of tragedy on a small community (which the excellent 1997 drama The Sweet Hereafter did) but rather the deeds which are borne out by members of that community in the wake of the tragedy.
Well acted and elegantly shot, In the Bedroom comes down to a compromise with the viewer -- how much ground is he willing to give the film? For me, not so much. Field sells the movie as a straight, undiluted drama, but waters down the middle with more than a bit of disappointed. Still, if only abstractly, the film makes its point (just not its mark). And though he pokes around the dark corners of the mind throughout the film, Field goes one step further in the closing seconds of the film -- what happens to ordinary people after they have taken extraordinary means?
all contents © 2001 Craig Roush