In The Bedroom
In The Bedroom is a multi-Oscar nominated picture about
love, life and death in the small town of Camden, Maine. Featuring
some stalwart performances by both veterans like Sissy
Spacek, Marisa Tomei and Tom Wilkinson, as well as relative newcomers
like Nick Stahl and William Mapother, it is a solid story about life
in a small town when tragedy hits.
Frank Fowler (Stahl) is the only child and budding architect of Matt
(Wilkinson) and Ruth (Spacek), just graduated high school with a
bright future in front of him, including interviews at some fancy
Boston area schools. They live in Camden Maine, a small seacoast
communty, where Matt is the local doctor. The one fly in the ointment
is that Frank has fallen in love (despite his protestations to the
contrary) with Natalie Strout (Tomei), the estranged wife of Richard
(Mapother) and mother of two young sons. Richard is part of the
canning Strouts, who own a big canning factory in town, but is also
something of a hot head.
Frank begins to have doubts about heading off to school and begins to
tell conflicting stories about the college interview process to his
parents. The parents obviously want Frank to head to a good school,
although they like Natalie and her two boys. But this little melodrama
is nothing compared to the tragedy that awaits all of them.
I'll try not to give too much away; suffice to say, bad things happen
to good people, and "revenge is a dish best served cold".
I enjoyed this film, although a couple of things really bothered me.
One, and the main thing, was how all the actors strove for that
perfect Maine accent. Believe me, I have plenty of relatives born and
raised "Downeast Maine" and none of them sound that way. It all
sounded like a very Hollywood version of the Maine accent, like they
needed extra emphasis (to go with the frequent views of the "Entering
Camden" arch) of just how much the action was tied to Maine. It was
very grating.
The plodding and stolid storyline was the other main drawback. Every
step felt calculated and even the hard to swallow retribution was
spotlighted a mile away. It was almost too carefully constructed and a
little too neat to mirror real life. And, despite the effort, I still
didn't believe the characters would have taken the ultimate step in
the end.
The picture was sharp and the cinematography was real solid as well.
There were a couple of real interesting shots, but for the most part,
the story was told with a steady hand. Maine comes off looking very
nice in the summer, with Camden the very picture of New England. I
really enjoyed the Red Sox games playing in the background, on the
radios all over the place.
One amazing coincidence came up at the end, as the credits scrolled
by. The movie was dedicated to the author Andre Dubus, whose story
"The Killings" was used as the inspiration. Oddly enough, I am
listening to a book on tape of the story "House of Sand and Fog"
(later made into a
movie itself), and it was written by Andre Dubus III, who
turns out to be Andre Dubus' son, who lives right up the road in
Newburyport and teaches at local colleges! Very odd how these
serendipitous moments come about, isn't it?
Anyway, I recommend this movie as a good rental. The acting was all
above average (like the children in Lake Wobegon) and the story
engrossing, especially for parents. It really tells a story of how
much we have emotionally invested in our children, as scary as that
may be.
In The BedroomSissy Spacek, Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl, Tom Wilkinson, William Mapother, William Wise, Celia Weston, Karen Allen
Frank Folwer is a young man home from college. He develops a special relationship with an older woman and their love blossoms in their small New England town.
Buy
In the Bedroom: Seven Stories
by Andre Dubus at Barnes & Noble.
Posted by jdarnold at December 11, 2004 11:05 PM
