Love and pain

The loss of loved ones, secret resentments and painful revenge are just parts of the emotional devastation portrayed in In the Bedroom, actor-turned-director Todd Field’s sad and sometimes horrific look at the tribulations testing a middle-class Maine family.

As the film begins, it looks as if it might be a warm love story between Natalie (Marisa Tomei), a mother of two in her 30s, and Frank (Nick Stahl), a soon-to-be grad student planning to leave town at the end of summer. We see them running through a field, and we hear her declaration of love as they rest beneath a tree with the peaceful sounds of a slight breeze rustling through its leaves. It’s a beautiful moment, but we’re soon to find out that it is an isolated one.

Natalie is still married to the jealous Richard Strout (William Mapother), who wants back in his wife’s house and time with his children. Frank’s parents, Matt and Ruth (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek), have differing views of their son’s new romance; Matt is seemingly pleased with his son’s ability to capture the heart of the beautiful Natalie, while Ruth is opposed to the idea of putting off college for a romance she doesn’t think will last.

Director Field maps his film out brilliantly, drastically changing the tone of the movie and switching its focus from Natalie and Frank to Matt and Ruth, as they must deal with a shocking tragedy, which brings out secret angers that have been festering inside them for decades.

Wilkinson, who you may remember as the older British gent stripper in The Full Monty, is an acting powerhouse in this film, doing an incredible job with the Northeastern accent and instilling Matt with the type of sensitivity and realism not seen much at the movies this past year. Spacek simply adds another remarkable performance to a mantle that includes Badlands, Carrie and Coal Miner’s Daughter. Both have decent shots at Oscars (Spacek just scored the American Film Institute’s Best Actress award).

Tomei, long an industry joke after winning an Oscar for My Cousin Vinny (she was great—it’s the film, and Joe Pesci, that didn’t age well) creates a sweet character in Natalie that could’ve been pathetic in the hands of a lesser actress. Don’t be surprised if her work here results in total career resuscitation. Nick Stahl (the little boy from Mel Gibson’s The Man Without a Face) is heart wrenching as the man who cherishes the chance to love a woman and her children, and Mapother is chilling as the deranged Richard.

The film becomes somewhat of a thriller in its final act, and Field handles this switch in tone with the same masterful finesse. The actions of the main characters are shocking, and the consequences will forever alter their lives. We like these characters, wanting to see them receive some form of relief, but the film is clearly not interested in happy endings.

Watching In the Bedroom, I was reminded of Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter, which dealt with a town full of parents grieving the loss of their children in a school bus accident. Egoyan and Field have proven themselves expertly observant of human emotion, depicting sadness, remorse and anger with a brutal, raw energy. They are difficult but very important films to watch.

If you found yourself locked in on whom you believed delivered the best performances of 2001, a viewing of In the Bedroom may throw you into a state of flux in more ways than one. It’s one of the year’s best, packed with stunning work from its performers, and it will render you emotionally exhausted.