Starring Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl, William Mapother,
William Wise, Celia Weston, Karen Allen.
Directed by Todd Field.
Matt Fowler (Wilkinson) is the local doctor in Camden, a small town on the coast of
Maine, and Ruth (Spacek) is his wife who teachs music at the local school. Their only
child Frank (Stahl) is back for the summer working part-time as a lobster fisherman
until he returns to graduate school in the fall. He is having an affair with Natalie
(Tomei), a woman in her mid 30's who has two kids whom he likes and gets on well with.
Natalie is separated from her violent husband Richard (Mapother), the spoiled son of
the owner of the largest business in town.
Nick pretends the affair is just a summer thing, but as the summer progresses, he seriously
considers putting school on hold to be with Natalie. The problem is Richard has returned
and wants to try to reconcile with Natalie, and is not impressed that Natalie wants
nothing to do with him except take his support cheques, and that Frank seems to be
hanging around her and the kids and won't go away. Richard hits Frank one night causing
a few stitches, and Frank decides the police aren't needed to be called. But soon tragedy
strikes, and the ones left to grieve must confront their anger at other people and the
legal system, and decide how far they would go in the name of love.
In The Bedroom won the jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and it is
no wonder why. The beauty of the film is that it remains real and never resorts
to histrionics or sensationalism. Every scene feels just like a conversation or
event that could happen in your own home, or possibly already has. Its strength
is in its rich characterization. We see how the Fowler marriage works - who is the
enforcer, who likes to avoid confrontation, who manipulates who. We also see how
a senseless tragedy can shut down any talking between people, and how stress lines
in the marriage break wide open when both eventually start blaming each other.
The film asks how far one might go out of love and guilt. It takes its time in
illustrating events, and goes out of its way to indicate the feelings of the characters,
and how their relationships with one another work. For me, the weakness in the film
is in the lack of foundation and the abrupt manner in which the final extreme choice
is made, a choice which would be unlikely for these characters and hard to fathom
without better explanation why.
What makes the whole thing work are the performances, especially of the three key
characters. Getting all the raves has been Sissy Spacek, who is outstanding as the
controlling and angry wife and mother, who was angry long before tragedy struck.
Marisa Tomei is simply the best she's ever been as the beautiful, free-spirited young
mother who enjoys her fling, but is not ready for the tragic results. But for my money,
the strongest performance is that of Tom Wilkinson, the easy-going father who tries to
avoid confrontation, and whose guilt leaves him vulnerable to manipulation.
In The Bedroom is a very truthful, sometimes hard to watch examination of what
people who have experienced violent tragedy go through. It is one of the most well-performed
movies of the year, and I recommend it.
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