Comment on Film
by Boris Koyfman

In The Bedroom
****
Director: Todd Field
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl

In The Bedroom is an astonishingly good thriller/character study that stays with you long after you've walked out of the theater. Sissy Spacek is exhilarating as Ruth, the New England broken hearted mother of Frank Fowler (Nick Stahl), whose romantic involvement with Natalie, played exceptionally by Marisa Tomei, turns devastatingly tragic.

I highly suggest you see the movie before proceeding with this review. GO SEE IT RIGHT NOW. Or at least wait for the video or DVD. It's that good. In The Bedroom is the best movie of the year.

Allright, for those who dare tread onward…

Frank Fowler, a young man fresh out of college graduation, returns home with an older hottie, Natalie (Marisa Tomei). Frank plays with her two sons fathered by her estranged rich-boy husband Richard (William Mapother, Tom Cruises cousin). Ruth feels bad vibes about Frank's new lady. After all, she's 8 years older, has two kids, is still married, (to an abusive piece of shit), and Frank is just out of college on the way to graduate school. Matt seems proud and even envious of his son regarding his conquest of this beautiful woman. He's almost amused by the situation.

Trouble brews when Richard comes back for Natalie. She tells him off. A horrifying fury grows inside Richard as he watches 20-year old Frank "take" his Natalie away. Violence erupts. Richard smashes Frank's hard, but not hard enough to get the dumb kid to call the cops on this crazy asshole, going against the advice of his mother. That is the problem. Frank and his parents hardly communicate aside from the usual chit-chat. Matt and Ruth are also quite uncommunicative with each other.

Richard comes back. This time, to finish the job. In a hauntingly terrifying scene, Frank is shot in the face with a distraught Natalie kneeling beside his lifeless body.

Richard is arrested, tried and sentenced for the slaying. After a week in jail he walks out on bail. Ruth and Matt are shattered and in a state of catatonic depression while Richard is back working nights as a bartender.

Matt and Ruth begin to turn on each other in their time of grievance. Their inability to efficiently communicate almost destroys their marriage.

Controversy has insued over the vigilante theme of the movie towards the end. Pay no attention. This is no Steven Seagal movie where he and DMX go after drug dealers. In the Bedroom cuts deep.