eric262003 Successful children's author Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) lives with his wife Marion (Kim Basinger) and his young daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning) and reside in the East Hamptons. Ted takes in young intern, Eddie (Jon Foster) to do menial jobs. The Cole clan is not on happy terms after the tragic death of their two adolescent sons. This is where Eddie faces up to a more complex initiative. It appears as though Ted and Marion have visions of one of their sons placed in Eddie's soul but they take the approach in more contrasting way.This is a very engaging drama about trying to cope with grief and what kind of steps must be taken in order to move forward. "The Door in the Floor", is very much about character understanding not only towards the audience but towards each other. Writer/director Tod Williams approaches this very sensitive story and handles it with the greatest of care. The movie is truly saturated with loads of emotion and the performances by veterans like Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger.The once loving relationship between Ted and Marion became lost after the tragic death of their sons. The worse part is that they each know one another's vulnerabilities and take their grief in very contrasting perspectives. Ted has grown to becoming an alcoholic and has been a philanderer towards the ladies. Marion's just can't believe that her boys were taken away too soon and has lost all emotions. It wasn't until a young man comes into the fray and their lives have taken a sudden impact.Even though book-to-movie adaptations have been frowned upon by the many audience members mostly because they tend to leave out a lot of details and at times very important ones, Williams focuses on the first third of John Irving's novel "A Widow for One Year". The movie script was provocative and the characters are what we might have expected them from the novel to be.Bridges' character as a children's author seems like a guy who has no patience for nonsense. He's everything you would expect from an eccentric artist, not afraid of roaming around the house in the nude and exposing his complex lifestyles towards his fresh new intern Eddie. Eddie is still green and inexperienced, and is used as nothing more than a designated driver, so that Ted may continue pursuit his sorrows in the drink. He shows no care in helping the young man in improving his writing skills. Marion seems to be living a double life. She has now become a stone-faced beauty of wonder where she touch no one and no one touches her. The other life comes out from a past which a myriad of framed photographs hanging across the corridor of her two sons when they were alive. This kind of grief is about as real as it can get as she can't get past the fact that her sons are dead and just doesn't want to let go. She enjoys the company of her four year old daughter, Ruth played by the younger sister and equally talented Elle Fanning. When she freely lets Eddie lure his sexual fascinations with her, it's like she is giving him his liberation as token of appreciation and nothing more. Which is contrary to Ted's seductive ways towards his model for hire Evelyn Vaughan which shifts from fondness to utter forcefulness.The final moments of the film is quite abrupt. Eddie starts to take a pivotal step towards his writing career. It's like everything he encountered has been forgotten as goes away at doodling words on a notepad at a framing shop.It's just those little nuances that make this film more than just the typical psychological drama. The sights, the smells, and the colours all add significance to this emotionally charged psychological drama. The title of the movie is a metaphor. It's the door that awaits you to world that's too grim to converse with even further. The door in the floor is symbol of a final resting place for the soul that one can not escape from. Where the world is a cruel place and the grief and pain is something that you must overcome, but can ever be completely erased.

Augusto Nembrini As I often do, I started watching this film, then I stopped to do something else... watching films this way may not be ideal, especially if it is the first time you are watching them but it does have an incredible advantage and that is to put some distance. Distance helps me to be more objective and make build my thoughts more coherently.When I first stopped this film I was about 15 minutes in. The film was going really well and I thought about this which led to think about other films that initially were going very well and got nowhere but somehow I had the feeling, this was not going to be one of those cases. Thankfully, it was not.There is a writer who not constantly, not like a teacher or a mentor would, speaks about writing to a younger writer. It is interesting to me how this is tackled because to talk about structure, story and when those are good the script writer needs to have the knowledge and the confidence to parallel match this in his own script. Of course the masterfully great stitching is finished when Jeff Bridges' character points out the need for specific details which connects with the title of the film being presented throughout the feature and finalising on a door in the floor of his squash court.I say I will have to watch again this film because I am sure there are several elements I did not get to see and even though I know the story now and it is not a remarkably visual film or funny it has the attribute of depth, like the strange connection between Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) and Evelyn Vaughn (Mimi Rogers), any connections with the writer that uses that name as pseudonym? What is her job? What is her mental status, is she clinically insane? I quite liked how nuts she was and how a character that was probably a mere extra, was given a lot more importance.Pulling from that thread, I noticed how many other little characters had a strong sense of reality, the woman at the photos shop, the nanny, the man at the bookstore and the gardener. It is all very saddle but certainly it unfolds a world very naturally.Now I have to wonder what is Tod Williams up to and why is he directing so few films.

Desertman84 Tod Williams served as both director and screenwriter for this drama, adapted from a portion of John Irving's novel A Widow for One Year in this movie,The Door In The Floor.It stars Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger together with Jon Foster and Bijou Phillips.Ted and Marion Cole are a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. After their two teenage sons died in an auto accident, Marion fell into a deep depression from which she has never fully emerged. Meanwhile, Ted has drifted into repeated infidelity, his most recent mistress being the sexually ravenous Mrs. Vaughn and neither Ted nor Marion are willing or able to devote their full attention to their surviving daughter,Ruth. Ted, a successful author of books for children, hires Eddie, a bright 16-year-old prep-school student, to help him edit his latest manuscript. But Ted is fully aware that Eddie bears a striking resemblance to one of his late sons which would would have a powerful effect on Marion. Eddie quickly develops a strong attraction to his employer's beautiful wife, and Marion, torn between grief and desire, draws him into a sexual relationship that brings the family's many emotional crises to the breaking point. This is a complex, candid, and satisfying movie that brings back to the socially provocative films. It is an adult drama with characters you sympathize with in spite of their immoral behavior.Also,Jeff Bridges demonstrates once again that he is one of the finest actors with his great performance as Ted.Finally,this is one of the better adaptations of a John Irving novel.

Chrysanthepop 'The Door in the Floor' happens to be based on John Irving's 'Widow For A Year'. I like most of his work and they are sort of set in a strange world where the main characters are in search for something. 'The Door In The Floor' falls on the same line. It essentially shows two characters, Ted and Marion, going through a chronic grieving process which they both experience differently. While Ted is still somewhat in touch with the world (finding things (e.g. affair with models, building a pool) to keep himself distracted) albeit very loosely as is evident in his disheveled and neglected lifestyle, Marion has lost all her feelings except that of grief. Then there are two other characters who are in search of something. Their daughter Ruth is trying to find her way in her mother's lost world and her way around the house coming to terms with her family loss in her own childly way. There's Eddie who's a fan of Ted and himself aspires to be a writer but he too is looking for something.Tod Williams presents some wonderful visuals. The feeling of loss and loneliness is well created. For example, with the use of weather where the overcast sky adds to the silent cry of the characters. Yet, there's a sense of humour (typical Irving style humour) that appears at the right moment. The cinematography, especially the close-ups and zooming are well done. The score is whimsical but rightfully gentle.Both Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger give beautifully skilled subtle performances. Bridges portrays Ted's loss of focus brilliantly yet he also effectively manages to portray him as a loving father. Basinger steals the show. I remember one particular scene that is among the finest examples of understated acting. It's the scene where Eddie confronts her about her sons' death and then we witness her expression change very slowly while remaining silent. Jon Foster is confident in his role and holds his own with the veteran co-stars. Elle Fanning is okay even though at times appears to be too much of a chatterbox. Mimi Rogers does a fine job of playing the neurotic model.'The Door In The Floor' is not one that would appeal to everyone because the 'point' isn't directly obvious but it's a story well told and a film well made and at the end one does feel a sense of satisfaction as the characters finally take a step forward.