In the Bedroom : Movie Review


For a film with Oscar-nominated performances from Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom takes some getting to see. The major outlets seem to have decided it is not for them.
I eventually tracked it down at the Bradford Museum of Film, a delightful venue, offering coffee and cakes on a comfortable sofa before the performance. This pre-film relaxation proves necessary preparation for the gruelling experience ahead.

The film, slow-moving throughout, begins by painstakingly building up a picture of middle-class American family life in a small fishing community. Wilkinson and Spacek are the conventional married couple (he a doctor, she a Music teacher) whose settled relationship is put initially under mild strain by their differing attitudes to their only son's relationship with an attractive young married woman who has separated from her aggressive husband.

 

The film then briefly explodes into violent action with the sudden and brutal killing of the son by the husband.
However, it slows again as the director chooses to concentrate on what is the real core of the film - the impact of this sudden loss on Wilkinson and Spacek and their marriage. The different stages of the grieving process are played out in detail and with stunning conviction and it is surely for this aspect of their performances that the principals received their Oscar nominations.

It is certainly an emotionally draining experience for the audience, though between surreptitious wipings of my eyes I did start to wonder where it was all leading.
However, the conclusion brings another outburst of violence, unexpected and, to my mind, not entirely convincing.

I left the cinema uncertain about the ultimate success of the whole film. In the Bedroom, like American Beauty (1999), is one of those films you admire rather than enjoy. Cinematically, it is exceptional. The camerawork is innovative without being distracting and the sense of a real community, so vital to an understanding of the relationships in the film, is constructed with immense visual subtlety. The acting, too, of the five main characters is outstanding.
However, I understand better, now, why it is not on general release. This is a serious film in all senses and one which makes few concessions to the audience. For anyone with recent experience of bereavement it is going to hit particularly hard. Take your hanky!

Author : John Forster