IN THE BEDROOM
A lobster pot illustrates the danger of intimacy in Todd Field's restrained but
flawed adaptation of an André Dubus story. If two lobsters climb in,
laconic Maine native Dr. Matt Fowler (Tom Wilkinson) explains, all is well, but
if three are "in the bedroom . . . " That third in his
bedroom might be his son and only child, Frank (Nick Stahl), whose best
interests represent a sore spot between Matt and wife Ruth (Sissy Spacek). At
issue is Frank's fling with Natalie (Marisa Tomei), an older, soon-to-be
divorcée with two kids and an ex who's a flaming asshole. Ruth sees
nothing but trouble for her Ivy League-bound pet; Matt sees, maybe, vicarious
youth. We all see the brutal crime coming, and for the most part Field sets the
melodrama in such an authentically detailed setting (at times it seems to slip
into Frederick Wiseman's Belfast, Maine) and with such convincing acting (too
much so with Spacek, who comes off as a shrew) that they almost overcome the
generic gratifications at the end. At the Avon and the Jane Pickens.
Issue Date: January 11 - 17, 2002
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