Whenever a new month rolls around, I check the various streaming services I subscribe to and set some new movies I wish to see onto my various watchlists. HBO has one advantage when I do that in that it also tells the subscriber what movies are leaving at the end of the month. That often gives me incentive to check out movies I put up who-knows-how-long ago before I lose the opportunity, at least for the time being, to actually see them. That’s how I finally got around to seeing In the Bedroom.
I didn’t know much about In the Bedroom aside from the fact it clearly featured actress Sissy Spacek since that was clearly her in the image HBO used on its website/streaming service. The plot description didn’t say much more there either aside from the fact it was up for multiple Academy Awards and co-starred Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Nick Stahl, and Marisa Tomei. Well, there was only one way to find out what it was about…two if you count just looking it up online, but where’s the fun in that?
Wilkinson and Spacek star as Matt and Ruth Fowler. Matt’s a doctor, Ruth is a choir director, and the two have been happily married for years. Heck, the movie opens with actors playing the two in their younger days enjoying a day on the beach in their home state of Maine. The Fowlers have one child, a college or so aged son named Frank (Stahl). Frank is a bit directionless, but he is enjoying what he characterizes as a “summer fling” with Natalie Strout (Tomei), an older divorced mother of two. Ruth and Matt have different ideas on what Frank should be doing with Natalie from the get-go. They don’t take issue with her necessarily (Ruth does a little), but the bigger concern seems to be a woman like Natalie is looking for more than a summer fling. She wants someone who will be there for her boys, among other things.
The problem is Natalie’s ex, Richard (William Mapother). He wants his wife and kids back, and he’s not afraid to get rough to make his point. When Frank tries to intervene to keep Richard away from Natalie and the boys, a shot is fired and Frank is dead. Richard’s family is well-connected in ways neither Natalie nor the Fowlers are, and the nature of how Frank’s death went down casts doubts on how deliberate the whole thing was, so Richard, free on bail, can wander around town, safe in the fact that he is basically untouchable and any punishment he eventually receives will be relatively minor. From here, the movie comes out to how Matt and Ruth each deal with this horrible hit to their lives. Matt tries to throw himself into his work, looking for evidence and prodding people to find a way to send Richard to prison with something more than a manslaughter charge. Ruth withdraws from life with the occasional angry outburst.
This was one well-acted movie. Spacek, Wilkinson, and Tomei all earned Oscar nominations for this, and each one deserved one. Tomei’s screen time is, naturally, limited as the movie goes on since the focus is really on Matt and Ruth, but given Natalie is just as much a victim in all this, Tomei gives it all she has to show a woman hurting from poor decisions in life just trying to get by, particularly when one of the two people hurt the most by Frank’s death partially blames her for what happens.
But then there’s Wilkinson and Spacek. Each character shows someone desperate for…something after they lose their only son. Do they want justice? Someone to blame? The idea that the universe will somehow punish the man that hurt them as much as he did? It’s hard to say since this is more of a subtle movie. For example, Richard’s family wealth is information given to the audience by a passing truck with his family name on the side while his generally unhinged manner over Natalie is emphasized by the fact he still has happy wedding photos hanging in his house. When Matt and Ruth finally let loose whatever they’ve both been bottling up, it’s an ugly case of mutual blame and recrimination, but it also leads to a catharsis as the two have their say and then seem to make up rather quickly. They’ve been together a long time. They know how to hurt each other, but they also know how much they both mean by the venom they individually sprout.
The movie perhaps focuses more on Matt than Ruth, and that’s something of a shame. Matt is the one who finds an answer, but perhaps not the answer to the Richard problem, but symbolically at least, Matt and Ruth will go on together. The movie itself is a very basic low budget drama, but the performances at the center of it do make the film very worthwhile in the end.
Grade: A
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