In the Bedroom

Cast View all

	Tom Wilkinson	Matt Fowler
	Sissy Spacek	Ruth Fowler
	Nick Stahl	Frank Fowler
	Marisa Tomei	Natalie Strout
	William Mapother	Richard Strout
	William Wise	Willis Grinnel
	Celia Weston	Katie Grinnel
	Karen Allen	Marla Keyes
	Frank T. Wells	Henry
	W. Clapham Murray	Carl
	Justin Ashforth	Tim Bryson
	Terry A. Burgess	District Attorney
	Jonathan Walsh	Father McCasslin
	Diane E. Hamlin	Davis' Assistant
	Camden Munson	Jason Strout
	Christopher Adams	Duncan Strout
	Henry Field	Young Frank
	Deborah Derecktor	Janelle
	Harriet Dawkins	Alma Adamson
	Bill Dawkins	Elwyn Adamson
	Kevin Chapman	Tim's Friend
	Joseph Field	Judge
	Harold Withee	Grocery Clerk
	David Blair	Marlboro Man
	Elisabeth McClure	Elderly Woman

Crew View all

Director	Todd Field
Writer	Andre Dubus, Robert Festinger, Todd Field
Producer	Stephen Dembitzer, Todd Field, Ted Hope, Ross Katz, Graham Leader, John Penotti, Penn Sicre, Tim Williams
Musician	Thomas Newman
Photography	Antonio Calvache

Trailer

Edition details

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Notes

Story Synopsis:
In the quiet Maine town of Camden, young Frank Fowler (Stahl) is spending the summer before college with Natalie Strout (Tomei), a single mother 10 years his senior. While his father (Wilkinson) trusts that Frank is old enough to make his own decisions, his mother (Spacek) is less than happy about whom her son is spending time with “In The Bedroom.” When Natalie’s estranged husband shows up at her house to find Frank with her, he snaps, leaving the Fowlers to crumble under unbearable grief while facing the justice system...and each other. From Andre Dubus’ story Killings. (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 DVD exhibits a picture with sharp and detailed images, and nicely balanced shadow delineation and contrast. Colors exhibit natural saturation, with accurate fleshtones and deep blacks. The courtroom scenes have a slightly blue appearance, conveying a cold feeling. Some minor film grain is revealed from the source element, as are a few artifacts. Edge enhancement can be a problem, but pixelization is only occasionally noticed. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
Considering the genre for this film, the Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack has been well produced. The sense of spaciousness is appropriately subtle yet compelling, with a generally satisfying sense of atmosphere, along with very gentle yet rather effective surround envelopment. Imaging across the screen is particularly wide and deep. The music, as well as the rest of the sound mix has been nicely recorded, with occasional, gentle spread into the surrounds. The dialogue sounds convincingly natural with quite good spatial integration. (Perry Sun)


MOVIE REVIEW
BY ROGER EBERT

Todd Field's "In the Bedroom" only slowly reveals its real subject in a story that has a shocking reversal at the end of the first act, and then looks more deeply than we could have guessed into the lives of its characters. At first, it seems to be about a summer romance. At the end, it's about revenge--not just to atone for a wound, but to prove a point. The film involves love and violence, and even some thriller elements, but it is not about those things. It is about two people so trapped in opposition that one of them must break.

The story opens in sunshine and romance. Frank Fowler (Nick Stahl) is in love with Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei). He'll be a new graduate student in the autumn. She is in her 30s, has two children, is estranged from Richard (William Mapother), who is a rich kid and an abusive husband. Frank's parents are worried. "This is not some sweetie from Vassar you can visit on holidays," his mother tells him. "You're not in this alone."

"We're not serious, Mom," Frank says. "It's a summer thing."

"I see," says his mother. She sees clearly that Frank really does love Natalie--and she also sees that Frank's father may be vicariously enjoying the relationship, proud that his son has conquered an attractive older woman.

Ruth Fowler (Sissy Spacek) is a choral director at the local high school. Her husband, Matt (Tom Wilkinson), is the local doctor in their Maine village. On the local social scale, they are a step above the separated Natalie and her husband, whose money comes from the local fish business. Is Ruth a snob? She wouldn't think so. The Fowlers pride themselves on being intelligent, open-minded, able to talk about things with their son (who does not want to talk about anything with them). We sense that their household accommodates enormous silences, that the parents and their son have each retreated to a personal corner to nurse wounds.

Then something happens. A review should not tell you what it is. It changes our expectations for the story, which turns out to be about matters more deeply embedded in the heart than we could have imagined. The film unfolds its true story, which is about the marriage of Matt and Ruth--about how hurt and sadness turn to anger and blame. There are scenes as true as movies can make them, and even when the story develops thriller elements, they are redeemed, because the movie isn't about what happens, but about why.

"In the Bedroom" is the first film directed by Todd Field, an actor ("Eyes Wide Shut," "The Haunting"), and is one of the best-directed films this year. It's based on a story by the late Andre Dubus, the Massachusetts-based writer who died in 1999, and who worked with Field on the adaptation before his death. It works with indirection; the events on the screen are markers for secret events in the hearts of the characters, and the deepest insight is revealed, in a way, only in the last shot.

Every performance has perfect tone: Nick Stahl as the man who is half in love with a woman and half in love with being in love; Marisa Tomei, who is wiser than her young lover, and protective toward him, because she understands better than he does the problems they face; William Mapother as the abusive husband, never more frightening than when he tries to be conciliatory and apologetic; William Wise and Celia Weston as the Grinnels, the Fowlers' best friends.

And Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson. They know exactly what they're doing, they understand their characters down to the ground, they are masters of the hidden struggle beneath the surface. Spacek plays a reasonable and civil wife and mother who has painful issues of her own; there is a scene where she slaps someone, and it is the most violent and shocking moment in a violent film. Wilkinson lives through his son more than he admits, and there is a scene where he surprises Frank and Natalie alone together, and finds a kind of quiet relish in their embarrassment. When Matt and Ruth lash out at each other, when the harsh accusations are said aloud, we are shocked but not surprised; these hard notes were undertones in their civilized behavior toward each other. Not all marriages can survive hard times.

Most movies are about plot, and chug from one stop to the next. Stephen King, whose book, On Writing, contains a lot of good sense, argues for situation over plot; he suggests that if you do a good job of visualizing your characters, it is best to put them into a situation and see what happens, instead of chaining them to a plot structure. Todd Field and Andre Dubus use the elements of plot, but only on the surface, and the movie's title refers not to sex but to the secrets, spoken, unspoken and dreamed, that are shared at night when two people close the door after themselves.

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