So, Oscar night,
who'll win, you or me?
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Multi-nominated
Oscar contender. Low on laughs, high on quality.
Janet Mayo
From the moment
"In the Bedroom" starts with a young couple running and
tumbling in a sunlit field, you know it is too good to last.
It isn't long
before the hints of darker things to come gradually insinuate themselves
on the scenes of middle-class America at work and play.
"In the
Bedroom" is a riveting examination of the impact of a tragedy
on what, on the surface, is a solid, loving marriage.
For his debut
as a director, Todd Field, took his inspiration from the work of
the celebrated American short story writer, Andre Dubus who died
in 1999.
The Fowlers
are a respectable couple living on the coast of Maine.
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| All happy
smiles - it'll never last |
Matt Fowler
(Tom Wilkinson) is a doctor practising in his native town and married
to New York born Ruth (Sissy Spacek), a choral music teacher.
Their only child,
Frank (Nick Stahl), home from school for the summer, is working
as a part time lobsterman to earn money for graduate school in the
autumn. He has become involved with a local single mother (Marisa
Tomei).
Frank's mother,
a domineering and manipulative woman soon shows her disapproval
of her son's alliance with the appealing Natalie.
His father is
less judgmental, preferring to take the quiet option given half
a chance, hoping it will all blow over in due course.
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| "So
what do you think of my new dress?" "It sucks"
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Unfortunately
he reckoned without the persistence of the spurned and violent husband
of Natalie, Richard Strout (William Mapother) - the archetypal villain,
even to the point of sporting a moustache.
This is a story
about marriage, about love and about loss as well as being an unconventional
thriller.
The power of
the film comes as much through its Pinteresque use of spaces between
the words as the words themselves.
Often it is
not so much what is said but what is not that conveys the thoughts
and emotions of the characters as they each try to come to terms
with the appalling outcome of a young man's passion for an older
married woman and search for their own solutions.
The quiet but
sensitive observation of each scene makes the occasional sudden
violence seem even more of a shock when it happens.
While Sissy
Spaceck has received much acclaim for her portrayal of the quiet,
controlled mother who occasionally can hold her feelings in no longer,
it was Tom Wilkinson who held my attention as he made the journey
from being a warm, kind, loving man to someone who is capable of
acts he previously couldn't have imagined.
Was this American
character really the same actor who seemed just as much at home
stripping in Sheffield in the "Full Monty" - no wonder
he's busy with work on both sides of the Atlantic.
If this was
a book I was reading I wouldn't be able to put it down - as a film
I was enthralled throughout.
For anyone wanting
a fast moving, noisy American spectacle - forget it; if you appreciate
a beautifully observed piece of drama - enjoy.
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