Jonathan C In the Bedroom is an awesome film. I use the word awesome in the most literal sense--as you watch it, in inspires awe. The reason is that some films try to be realistic, but this one really manages to do so. The consequences of this for the viewer are devastating, because the events, which just as well could be real, are very disturbing. As a result, you are traumatized just like the characters in the film in a very genuine way.The setting is Camden, Maine, where you are introduced to an average family including a middle aged doctor, his music teacher wife, and their son on the verge of going to college. The son, however, has fallen for an older woman who has two children and a very angry ex- boyfriend, and we are quickly introduced to the notion that things are not quite right. The boyfriend and the son encounter each other on several occasions, and so as not to trigger the spoiler alert, I will say only that one of these meetings ends in tragedy. The family then has to cope with what happened.Most movies cultivate a drama; rarer are the movies that actually take you to a community and drop you right in the middle of it. In the Bedroom is one of these--the doctor, Frank, played by Tom Wilkinson, might as well be someone you know. Wilkinson plays him so well that it seems like he is absolutely real. Sissy Spacek, who plays his wife, gives a performance in the same category. Marisa Tomei offers up a portrait of domestic violence that brings you into the room with a very terrified young woman--it is distressing. William Mapother, as the ex-boyfriend, is scary in a way that seems true to life.The conflict in the film ultimately is how to deal with the tragedy. It is a tough movie to watch--there is no way that you would want to be in the situation that these characters are in. Usually, as an audience member, you are insulated somewhat from the drama by the unreality of watching a movie. Here, however, since you might as well be watching the real thing, you begin to feel uncomfortable. The movie is magic.

Python Hyena In the Bedroom (2001): Dir: Todd Field / Cast: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl, William Mapother: Tense drama thriller about secrets behind closed doors. In this case, in the bedroom. That is where sex is often associated as a student and older woman engage in sexual passion. Her ex-husband isn't too keen on giving her up. Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek play parents who warn their son of the potential danger but tragedy strikes when the ex-husband commits murder. He is released on bail due too nobody actually witnessing the murder leaving the victim's parents demanding justice and no other options than to justify their actions. Far better than the overrated A Time to Kill because it isn't about murder but about grief. Excellent work by director Todd Field with tremendous performances by Wilkinson and Spacek as a broken couple trying to sort through their loss and dealing with feelings of hatred. Their last scene can be interpreted differently in terms of what is said and not said. Marisa Tomei plays the woman their son was dating and whose image to the parents differs. Nick Stahl played their son caught in an immoral relationship and suffers fatal consequences despite warnings. William Mapother plays the violent ex-boyfriend caught within the law and streaming hatred. Observant portrayal of the affects of grief and secrets that dwell in the bedroom. Score: 9 / 10

Sindre Kaspersen American screenwriter, actor and director Todd Field's feature film debut which he co-wrote with screenwriter Rob Feistinger, is based on a short story called "Killings" from 1979 by American novelist Andre Dubas (1936-1999). It premiered at the 17th Sundance International Film Festival in 2001, was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 26th Toronto International Film Festival in 2001 and is an American production which was shot on location in the town of Knox and Lincoln County in the state of Maine in the New England region of north-eastern USA and produced by producer Graham Leader, Jewish-American screenwriter, producer and director Ross Katz and Todd Field. It tells the story about Matt Fowler, a doctor who lives in a quiet neighbourhood in the town of Camden in Maine with his wife Ruth who is a music teacher. Matt and Ruth's only son Frank has just come home for the summer after graduating and is in a relationship with an older woman named Natalie who recently separated from her husband Richard Strout who is the father of her two young sons Duncan and Jason. All though Frank's father encourages him to go to the architecture school in Boston which he has applied for, Frank has taken a part-time job on a lobster boat so he can be with Natalie and her children. Frank and Natalie's relationship grows stronger, but this upsets Richard who begins to bother them. Distinctly and finely directed by American filmmaker Todd Field, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws an intimate and gripping portrayal of a recent graduate's relationship with his caring parents who worries about his future and his evolving romance with a struggling mother who has just gotten out of a bad marriage. While notable for it's naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling art direction by director, screenwriter and art director Shannon Hart, cinematography by Spanish cinematographer Antonio Calvache, set decoration by set decorator Josh Outerbridge, fine editing by film editor Frank Reynolds and use of sound, this dialog-driven and narrative-driven psychological drama depicts several dense studies of character and contains a good score by American composer Thomas Newman. This instantly involving and poignantly atmospheric independent film from the early 21st century about a married couple's battle for justice after being struck by a terrible crime, is impelled and reinforced by it's subtle character development, cogent narrative structure, mindful dialog, interrelating stories, essential themes and the restrained and remarkable acting performances by British actor Tom Wilkinson, American actress Sissy Spacek, American actor Nick Stahl and American actress Marisa Tomei. A profound and memorable character piece which gained, among numerous other awards, the Special Jury Prize for Acting at the 17th Sundance International Film Festival in 2001 and Acadamy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 74th Academy Awards in 2001.

johnnyboyz In the Bedroom twists and turns delightfully, pulling the proverbial carpet from out under the viewer on at least two occasions and leaving us rather shaken at what plays out on screen a good few times other than this. To say it's about love and coming of age as hormonal rushes vie with a parent's want for their youngster to branch out into greater, more grandeur things in the form of studies would be true. To say it's about the grieving process would additionally be true, to say why would be a gross spoiler of an item that only hits us about a half of the way through, and to say it was about normal, everyday people whom are placed in extraordinary circumstances before opting to elevate their position into an even more extraordinarily circumstantial situation, as clashes with deeply routed morals come-about, would also be true. Todd Field takes delight in manoeuvring his characters down shady alleys of internal conflict and desire, equally so with the narrative which is wonderfully pitched and thoroughly engaging.Field's gear changes are near effortless, shifting tones and impressively taking the story down different paths; successfully dragging the story along with it as things brood. His film revolves around the Fowler family of Maine in America, their existence seeing them contribute to society in an upstanding and generally sociable manner; the father and husband of whom is Matt (Wilkinson), a local doctor, his and his sons' fondness of baseball so strong that listening to repeat broadcasts on the radio of games of old is the norm as they spend their spare time fishing for lobsters out at sea. The wife and mother is Ruth (Spacek), a key component to the film is their eldest son Frank (Stahl) whom hovers around the meaning to go off to study architecture but is distracted by his love for local girl Natalie (Tomei) who's ex-husband Richard (Mapother) remains as much a pest as he does a volatile threat.Frank lovingly spends his days with Natalie full of all things good; the ex-husband Richard looming ominously in the background as he seemingly refuses to let Natalie go. Frank's attitudes to life at this stage in his life clash with mother Ruth's ideas, his want to stay where he is and perhaps work on one of the many aforementioned lobster boats the local community run, just so as to be closer to Natalie, is winning the battle over going away to study. Frank sits alone at night in the family's house debating over the scenario he finds himself in and struggling over some architectural work linked to his education, his mother coming downstairs offering the binary opposition to what Frank is apparently leaning towards and they clash in a profile shot.After a jolting twist in the tale happens, and the resulting frustrations born out of the aftermath of this do not tie up the loose ends of pain that still flail, things shift and we head down a different direction. Field hits us effectively enough with this U-turn reveal but the true wonder of his direction is his keeping of the impact of the event seemingly fresh well into the rest of the film. Where character and decisions and the relationships numerous characters had with one another drove the film, for In the Bedroom to take on such a minimalist tone thereafter following all this activity helps resonate the impact of the event. The edits between takes are longer for the second third; we don't seem to revolve around much else except for the aftermath of the event; whatever dialogue from a flurry of characters before, has gone: replaced only by two people speaking or arguing in grim tones about what to do and there's less an emphasis on narrative, as if the proverbial spanner has been wedged into the cogs that turn the action-reaction formula resulting in the machine being stuck on 'reaction'. When tensions and emotions reach a boiling point, the film will peel off down another road and lead us onto an agonising conclusion.Sliced up into three distinct thirds, In the Bedroom delivers an intriguing love story between two young and attractive people as a son bids to move away from his parents; a somewhat harrowingly progressive and deliberately trudging segment in which the director slows everything right down to compliment the material before concluding on a pulpy revenge infused thriller tone, all the while with a constant eye on studious and refreshing attention to character. The film opens with a series of machines going through a predisposed process of canning seafood at a local plant; the film will later go onto revolve around the process of number of things all linked to human nature, jealousy; guilt; rage; grief and how they affect individual people and those around them whom they hold dear or otherwise.In what is a decidedly bleak ending, the grim reality of the new existence these people inhabit is metaphorically observed in the removing of a plaster which covered a thumb wound for most of the film; said injury now apparently healed over thus pointing out grazes, be they physical or otherwise, do heal. The new order a particular set of characters find themselves in after agreeing to do what they did suggests a newfound sense of solace with their living, an ending which suggests more-so a temporal healing of certain psychological wounds than it does an entire healing; but the use of violence and death as a means for an answer challenges the viewer in where they stand in desiring two central character winding up, not happy, but as happy as humanely possible following the tragic events that happened. The film is bold, rather daring and quite the intrinsic drama.