|
The Door in the Floor Review By Shawn McKenzie 07/16/2004 Movies based on John Irving novels have been in the past better than average. I’ve never read any of them, but I’ve seen almost all of their adaptations. The first one, 1982’s The World According to Garp, gave Robin Williams his first semi-dramatic role. Many critics hated 1998’s Simon Birch, but I liked it. Michael Caine won his second Oscar for 1999’s The Cider House Rules, which also scored an Oscar for Irving’s screenplay based on his own novel. Now we have The Door in the Floor, a movie based on the first third of Irving’s novel A Widow for One Year. While I don’t see any Oscar attention heading this way for the movie, like its predecessors, it is a better than average movie.
Children’s author and illustrator Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) and his wife, Marion (Kim Basinger), are going through a trial separation following the death of their teenage sons, 17-year-old Thomas (Tod Harrison Williams) and 15-year-old Timothy (Carter Williams), in a car accident years ago. They thought that having a new child, their now 4-year-old daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning), would solve their problems, but it didn’t. Ted constantly drinks and cheats on Marion, most recently with Mrs. Evelyn Vaughn (Mimi Rogers), a former lover who still poses in the nude for his drawings. Marion is in a deep depression, and even the mention of the car accident will paralyze her with grief. Eddie O’Hare (Jon Foster) is a 16-year-old Exeter prep school student and aspiring writer whose Exeter English teacher father, Minty (John Rothman), gets him a summer internship working for his old colleague Ted. Eddie lives with Ted for the summer in his East Hampton home, but instead of learning writing techniques from him, he ends up being more of an errand boy and chauffer for Ted (who lost his license), which becomes a source of frustration. Eddie is awkward around girls, and even though he could try flirting with Ruth’s 18-year-old nanny, Alice (Bijou Phillips), he finds himself more attracted to and fantasizing about Marion, who he sees during the daytime when he is typing up Ted’s manuscripts at the couple’s apartment in town. After Marion catches him doing unnatural things to her underwear and pictures, she begins a sexual affair with him, which is creepy because Eddie is the same age as her late sons. Trying not to get caught by Ted, his presence in their lives forces both of them to finally face their demons and make some lasting decisions.
The performances all around are certainly worthy of Oscar gold, but as I’ve said many times before (and have been proven right)…Oscar seeking movies released before September don’t stand much of a chance, unless they are a major release with wide distribution (like last year’s Seabiscuit.) Bridges is always good, but is constantly overlooked. Basinger has perfected the depression look, and you can see genuine pain in her face. Fanning is the spitting image of her older sister Dakota, and it looks like she is following her sister’s footsteps in the acting chops department as well. Relative newcomer Foster is good, which makes me even more excited to see him in this fall’s upcoming ABC series “Life as We Know It.” I only really had a problem with Rogers, but only because her subplot seemed silly and out of place with the rest of the movie (at one point she goes on a jealous, knife-wielding rampage after Ted, which was just odd.) It may not be heading for Oscar gold, but if you’re tired of the popcorn flicks in the megaplexes and you want to see some good old acting, check out The Door in the Floor. The director, Tod Williams, who also adapted Irving’s novel for the screen, is no stranger to dysfunctional family movies. His only other movie, 1998’s The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, featured a family about as screwed up as you can get. I’m glad he decided to only do the first third of the book, because if he had adapted the whole thing and made it three or more hours long, I could see it ending up very boring. I don’t know why it took him six years to come out with his second film, but I’d like to see another one soon, and I hope his studio releases it in December, so it has a fighting chance.
Buy these items at
Ratings System:
SEE THIS MOVIE!
Catch this movie at the theater if you can...
Wait until it comes out on video...
Wait until it plays on HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc...
Demand your money back, even if you saw it for free!
|
|
