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In the Bedroom [Region 2] | ![In the Bedroom [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JSVFDWNWL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Todd Field
Actors: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, William Mapother
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Rating:  186 reviews
Sales Rank: 178176
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017188885874
ASIN: B00006LSH0
Theatrical Release Date: January 11, 2002
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Amazon.com essential video
When a film with such emotional resonance and visual poise as In the Bedroom makes it to the screen, it seems an unexpected gift meant to remind us of the medium's possibility for sensitivity and epiphany. First-time director Todd Field, who adapted the film from a story by Andre Dubus with screenwriter Rob Festinger, quietly observes the loss, rage, and inexorable desire for revenge that follows the murder of a 21-year-old son. The film opens with Frank (Nick Stahl), back from college for the summer, taking up with Natalie (Marisa Tomei), a slightly older, sexually alluring woman with two boys and an estranged husband prone to violence. It is the tender portrayal of love between Frank and his parents, even as Frank and Natalie's relationship reveals the prejudices of all involved, that makes the subsequent anguish of the film so acute. Matt and Ruth Fowler (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek), middle-class denizens of a Maine lobster town where everyone knows each other, toil through weeks of devastation and blame following Frank's murder before their outrage obliterates all else. Field's exact handling of jealousy, class division, and grief is abetted by career-highlight performances from Wilkinson and Spacek. In the Bedroom is, along with You Can Count On Me, one of the best American dramas to grace the new millennium so far. --Fionn Meade
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| Customer Reviews: Read 181 more reviews...
 A good sleep aid February 13, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you are tossing and turning in bed and can't get to sleep I highly recommend you watch this movie. It is so slow and boring that you will be fast asleep in a matter of minutes. Good thing I didn't put out money for this DVD. I checked it out of the library. So on the cover that it was nominated for awards. Who are these people that nominated this movie for an award anyway? The only redeeming quality of this movie was that the acting was good. Otherwise don't waste your money or your time. I wish that I could give this movie less than a star rating.
Could not even finish it January 29, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
I don't understand the hype. This was literally one of the most boring things I have ever watched. March of the Penguins had more emotion... From the very first scene I wanted to shut it off. It was excrutiating and I am not exagerating. There have been very few times where I actually had to turn a movie off and not finish watching it ever. This was one of them.
 A huge letdown. January 25, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
In the Bedroom was nominated for a lot of Academy Awards a few years ago and to my disappointment, this film is slow and boring from beginning to end. I was expecting so much more from this critic's darling and even though Tom Wilkinson is a great actor, I am sorry to say not even his flawless acting could save this shallow train wreck. In the Bedroom is just one of those films with great acting but the plot is weak and never gets off the ground. The ending is just plain horrible, didn't see the that one coming, ugh!
 TODD FIELD, OPUS 1 January 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
**** 2001. Co-written and directed by Todd Field, IN THE BEDROOM is an adaptation of Andre Dubus' In the Bedroom. Five nominations for the Academy awards. Great first movie from a director who delivered, five years later, another wonderful film: Little Children. Without a doubt, he's a future master.
 Pain and loss at its most realistic... December 6, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
`In the Bedroom' is one of those films that is so tragic, so devastating, so emotionally crippling that one is forced to tear themselves down and examine all that they are witnessing. There are few films that can make the act of buying chocolate tear-inducing, but Todd Field's brilliantly crafted `In the Bedroom' does that very thing. I have yet to see a film that has touched me the way that this film has, nor have I seen a film that I am this violently passionate about, but `In the Bedroom' is just that rare cinematic accomplishment that gets everything right. It is not the most devastating story to ever be told, but the way the story is told, the way the events and their effect are delivered to the viewer is so magnificent, so raw and real that the audience quickly becomes so absorbed and invested that they feel the pain as if it were there own.
The film is adapted from Andre Dubus' short story entitled `Killings' (which if you ever have the chance to read please do for it is extremely well written) which follows the aftereffects of a young mans murder on his parents. While the short story comes in at the funeral and moves forward from there Todd Field masterfully adapted his script to include events taking place before the killing that connect the audience with not only the suffering parents but the victim as well.
Todd Field made Frank Fowler real.
Frank Fowler is a young college student home for the summer. His summer activities mostly include the older Natalie Strout, a mother who is separated from her violent and jealous husband. Frank's parents do not necessarily approve of his decision (especially not his mother) but he is a grown man and they really can't prevent him from seeing who he pleases. The only person that can stop Frank is Frank; that is until Natalie's estranged husband Richard gets wind of the affair and decides to end it himself, with a gun. This powerful moment (which occurs off-screen) carries the weight of the balance of the film. Part of what makes Todd Fields direction so dynamic is decisions like the one mentioned above, to have the murder take place out of the line of sight. In this Field is able to focus, not on the tragedy that befell Frank, but on the hole that it left in those he loved. The killing is felt throughout the entire film yet it is never seen.
Frank's parents Matt and Ruth deal with the loss of their son in different yet equally emotional ways. They become distant from one another. They begin to blame one another, to accuse and turn on one another. This is expected and has been seen in films of this nature before but Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek are so brilliant here the whole situation takes on new light. When they verbally assault one another in the living room it's shocking to the viewer and thus it has so much more weight tagged onto its back. Their eventual struggle to reconnect is even more shocking and that final scene is a disturbing yet settling and warranted conclusion.
The film is shot beautifully, in small vignettes that help the audience connect to the characters and fall into the mood that Todd Field and Andre Dubus before him set before us. The film, playing more like a collection of scenes, gives the audience a sense of reality. This is just life depicted in art. The lives these two live is just like yours and mine except they've lost something very dear to them.
The acting here is some of the finest in recent years. Each and every performance comes together to establish real and raw emotions that the audience can relate to and sympathize with. Watching Wilkinson and Spacek interact with one another in mere silence is so emotionally reaching and powerful. Marisa Tomei is also effortlessly endearing as Natalie. As the viewer watches her struggle for words, her uncontrollable shakes and shivers as she attempts to give her statement to the court you can't help but become invested in her character, in her pain. Nick Stahl is effective as the doomed Frank, and he needs to be for this movie hinges on his performance. William Mapother brings a sense of understanding to his portrayal of Richard, especially as the film spirals to its closing.
No performance though is as essential to the impact of this film as Wilkinson's portrayal of Matt Fowler. There is one scene in particular that to me is the scene this whole movie can base itself on. It's a shot of Matt in his son's room rummaging through his things and there are tears falling from his face. This scene chocked me up so much because his pain was so real, so realistic. It was not dramatized. There was no sudden outburst, no screams, nothing but real emotion.
And that to me sums up `In the Bedroom', one of the finest films ever to be filmed. This is real emotion at play here, a film that elicits in the viewer a deep-seated pain that is so real, so genuine that we can't help but feel a part of it. This is one of the most effective character studies in recent years and will remain in your mind and in your heart forever.
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