In the Bedroom

Released 2001
Stars Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, Deborah Derecktor, Veronica Cartwright, William Mapother
Directed by Todd Field

Spoiler Alert: This commentary gives away all details of the movie.

How do you deal with the loss of an only child? Especially if you're too old to have more, and your son didn't have time to have grandchildren? What if the loss was caused by a drunk driver or, worse yet, he was murdered? How can you respond to such a tragedy? There's going to be untold grief for the rest of your life, but the initial problem is the anger. It's the anger and past resentments that will tear the parents apart at a time when they need each other the most. In the Bedroom understands this, and it examines a marriage stressed by the sudden loss of their only child. This film surprised me a couple of times with its direction. Initially, I thought it was going to build to a climax where Frank (Nick Stahl) would be killed at the end, but he was killed relatively quickly. It was powerful in how sudden and matter-of-factly it happened, and I was excited to realize this was going to be an examination of the grieving family left behind instead of a thriller about an ex-husband slowly driven over the edge. Then it surprised me again as it developed into a need for vengeance instead of a couple reconciling their grief and finding solace in each other. I expected Matt (Tom Wilkinson) and Ruth Fowler (Sissy Spacek) to eventually embrace Natalie (Marisa Tomei) and her boys in order to create a surrogate family. There's a scene where one of the little boys rides his bike to the boat where Matt is unloading Frank's lobster traps, and they lock eyes. I thought this was a perfect moment for Matt to reach out to the boy who his son had loved. After all, the boy had also lost Frank, whom he had begun to view as a father figure, and now his real father was a killer. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Matt to begin to fill the void in his life, but it may have been too much to ask him to nurture the child of his son's killer.

As the story progressed, I had the feeling the eventual ending was becoming more and more inevitable. Richard Strout (William Mapother) was a punk, and he was going to beat the murder rap. To make matters worse, he lived in the same small town and inadvertently haunted Ruth with his presence. He didn't taunt the Fowlers, but he did feel his action was justified ("Your boy was sleeping with my wife"). It's difficult to imagine living in the same town as this punk, while knowing he was going to get off with a light sentence. After trying everything they could legally, they had only one recourse. The film builds to this climax slowly, logically, and inevitably. Once they know the crime won't go unpunished, the Fowlers are free to begin healing.

Bill Alward, August 17, 2002