In the Bedroom

In the Bedroom
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Todd Field
Produced by	Todd Field Ross Katz Graham Leader
Screenplay by	Todd Field Robert Festinger
Based on	Killings by Andre Dubus
Starring	Tom Wilkinson Sissy Spacek Nick Stahl Marisa Tomei
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Antonio Calvache
Edited by	Frank Reynolds
Production company	Good Machine Eastern Standard Film Company GreeneStreet Films
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	November 23, 2001 (2001-11-23)
Running time	131 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.7 million[1]
Box office	$43.4 million[1]

In the Bedroom is a 2001 American crime drama film directed by Todd Field, and dedicated to Andre Dubus, whose short story Killings is the source material on which the screenplay, by Field and Robert Festinger, is based. The film stars Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, and William Mapother.

The title refers to the rear compartment of a lobster trap known as the "bedroom" and the fact that it can only hold up to two lobsters before they begin to turn on each other.

Plot

The film is set in the Mid-Coast town of Camden, Maine. Matt (Tom Wilkinson) and Ruth Fowler (Sissy Spacek) enjoy a happy marriage and a good relationship with their son Frank (Nick Stahl), a recent college graduate who has come home for the summer. Frank has fallen in love with an older woman with children, Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei). Frank is also applying to graduate school for architecture, but is considering staying in town to work in the fishing industry and be near to Natalie. Natalie's ex-husband, Richard Strout (William Mapother), tries to find a way into his ex-wife and son's lives, going to increasingly violent lengths to get his intentions across to Natalie. Ruth is openly concerned about Frank's relationship with Natalie, while Matt thinks it is only a fling.

One day Frank goes to Natalie's to find her distressed that Richard had been there earlier. Frank tries to comfort Natalie, but she looks out the window and sees Richard's vehicle pull up. Natalie brings the kids upstairs. Frank tells Richard to leave. Richard walks away to act like he's leaving, but runs in through another door to attack Frank. While the camera zooms to Natalie's face, we hear Frank pleading with Richard to "put that away," and the sound of a gunshot is heard. The camera zooms out to reveal Frank's mutilated head.

Though equally devastated, Matt and Ruth grieve in different ways, with Matt putting on a brave face while Ruth becomes reclusive and quiet. Richard is set free on bail, paid by his well-to-do family, and both Matt and Ruth are forced to see Richard around town. The tension between the pair increases when they learn that the lack of a witness to their son's shooting allows the killer to avoid murder charges, since the district attorney may have difficulty proving that Richard killed Frank intentionally, as opposed to accidental manslaughter during a struggle, which defense attorney Marla Keyes (Karen Allen) argues. The silence between the couple erupts in an argument where each is confronted with the truth about each parent's relationship with their son: Ruth was overbearing, and Matt let him get away with everything. With the strain between them broken, the couple is finally able to find common ground in their grief.

Matt then abducts and kills Richard. He and a friend bury the body on the friend's wooded property. Matt returns home to Ruth, who is awake and smoking in bed. She asks him, "Did you do it?" Matt appears troubled and unresponsive. He climbs into bed and then turns away from her. Finally, Ruth gets up to make coffee. Matt rolls over onto his back and pulls a band-aid from a finger he injured hauling traps. Ruth calls from the kitchen, "Matt, do you want coffee?" Matt doesn't answer.

Cast

• Tom Wilkinson as Matt Fowler
• Sissy Spacek as Ruth Fowler
• Nick Stahl as Frank Fowler
• Marisa Tomei as Natalie Strout
• William Mapother as Richard Strout
• Celia Weston as Katie Grinnel
• Karen Allen as Marla Keyes
• William Wise as Willis Grinnel
• Justin Ashforth as Tim Bryson
• Camden Munson as Jason Strout
• Frank T. Wells as Henry

Reception

Critical reception

Wilkinson and Spacek in Field's In the Bedroom (2001).

Upon its release, the film received positive responses for its direction, script, and performances (notably Wilkinson and Spacek), garnering a 93% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 137 reviews with an average score of 7.9/10. The site's consensus states "Expertly crafted and performed, In the Bedroom is a quietly wrenching portrayal of grief."^[2]

David Edelstein of Slate Magazine wrote on his review that it is the "best movie of the last several years" and described it "the most evocative, the most mysterious, the most inconsolably devastating" film. He further mentioned that the effect of the film "isn't over when you leave the theater" and that it's "always going to be there". He also called In the Bedroom a "masterpiece".^[3]

Neil Norman of The Evening Standard stated that "...Field has not only studied the masters of cinematic understatement, such as Ozu and Bergman, but that he fully understands their processes... Field's achievement is such a perfectly consummated marriage of intent and execution that he need never make another movie. I would not be alone, I think, in hoping he will make many more."^[4]

William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer compared Field's direction to Kubrick saying that it "manages to feel both highly controlled and effortlessly spontaneous at the same time; and his lifting of the facade of this picturesque, Norman Rockwell setting is carried out with surgical precision". He further mentioned that "like Kubrick, Field doesn't make any moral judgments about his characters, and his film remains stubbornly enigmatic. It can be read as a high-class revenge thriller, an ode to the futility of vengeance or almost anything in between."^[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated on his review that it is "one of the best-directed films of the year" and that "every performance has a perfect tone".^[6] He listed In the Bedroom as his third best film of the year 2001.^[7]

Rolling Stones' Peter Travers called the film "an uncommonly good movie" that "will hit you hard." He also mentioned that the "Oscar would be a fool" if they ignore Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson's "career-crowning performances".^[8]

A. O. Scott included the film in his New York Times essay "The most important films of the past decade — and why they mattered."^[9]

In the Bedroom was also chosen by the New York Times Film Critics for their "Best 1,000 Films of All Time." ^[10]

Among the negative reviews of the film include Paul Tatara of the CNN mentioning that the film "flounders" despite the good performances.^[11] Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post said "it opens brilliantly" but goes on to "self-negating absurdity."

Sundance

In the Bedroom was the first official Sundance Film Festival film to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture including three more nominations for acting and an adapted screenplay nomination. It received the most nominations of any film the premiered at Sundance until Precious in 2009.^[12]

Box office

In the Bedroom was the second highest-grossing film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival from 2000 to 2009, after Napoleon Dynamite.^[13] The film grossed a worldwide total of $43,368,779.^[14] It went on to become, at-the-time, the highest-grossing non-IMAX film in history to never reach the top 10 in a given week.^[15]

Accolades

Film archives

A 35mm safety print is housed in the permanent collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive^[16]

References

External links

• Official website
• In the Bedroom at the Internet Movie Database
• In the Bedroom at AllMovie
• In the Bedroom at Box Office Mojo
• In the Bedroom at Rotten Tomatoes
• In the Bedroom at Metacritic

Publications

• 'In the Bedroom' Without Frills – 9 August 2002, New York Times
• The Best DVD's of 2002 – 3 January 2003, New York Times
• , The Film Journal Review of In the Bedroom by Rick Curnutte
• In the Bedroom: A Screenplay
• In the Bedroom, preface by Todd Field

Academic papers

• International Psychoanalysis, I Know Not Seems by Harvey Roy Greenberg 30 April 2009