Pajiba

I think Marisa Tomei should get a lot of credit for her acting in this movie. Her face and posture in the second half are just devastating, I thought, just completely capturing the experience of a person who's mentally living in hell.

Great review. Definitely an underappreciated movie that broke MY fucking heart. I'm glad you pointed out how powerful the movie conveys the sense of grief that Matt and Ruth feel while not only adding the frustration of their inability to express it but being able to do so in spite of the fact that they don't verbally express it.

That was kind of confusing but I think you guys get my point.

I am rarely so moved by a film as I was when I saw In the Bedroom. that was the year i gave up on the Oscars, because neither tom Wilkinson, nor Sissy Spacek won for their performances. They gave the two of the best perfrormances I have seen in my life, let alone that year.

Thanks for the review.

Great review, this is such an emotionally draining and wonderfully acted film.

In The Bedroom In My Pants doesn't work, sorry.

I have never even heard of this movie...which is shocking, considering the huge crush I used to have on Ms. Tomei. I'm gonna have to check it out now...

[woefully looks at his bulging-at-the-seams netflix queue]

[giggles a little at the word bulging]

This film reminds me to bring up a potential comment diversion I have yearned for:

"Houses in films that you would just sell your soul to live in."

I absolutely loved that old clapboard house on the water with everything in just a little disrepair.

But back to the real topic: apart from the fact that this film finally brought Tom Wilkinson the attention he deserves and finally made me forgive Maris Tomei for that Oscar, the most brilliant part was that slow revelation that we were watching the REAL complete Shakespeare, abridged (with apologies to the Marin Company). Spacek was Portia and Goneril and Lady Macbeth all rolled into one. Wilkinson was the love child of Hamlet and Othello. Tomei really is Iago as he was originally conceived.

"Houses in films that you would just sell your soul to live in."

The house from What Lies Beneath. So. Beautiful.

That, or the treehouse in Swiss Family Robinson. Complete with monkey butlers.

I had actually never heard of this moive before this review, but it is now being added to my Netflix queue as we speak...

and PaddyDog, to continue with your mini-diversion, I absolutely covet the house in Ironman. the Boy and I, both being architecturally minded, were drooling in the movie theater at that house. I wanted to ask the usher to pause the movie reel so I could look at it some more

Damnit...I was gonna say the Swiss Family treehouse. Just watched that the other day and thought...that would be the coolest place to live...EVER.

And then I went to Disney and actually went in the treehouse and had my hopes confirmed. They don't know yet that I'm planning on stealing it.

DUH, Shadows, you'll be living there with me.

Back on topic, I really enjoyed what Fields did with Little Children as well, it was one of the few movie adaptations that I enjoyed as much as the novel.

Underappreciated? I dunno, 5 Oscar noms is pretty well-appreciated.

That said, I hated this movie. I was with it until a point, but I actually thought the end was a cop-out. Revenge seemed to easy to me, it felt like it negated the previous two hours of turmoil - no one grew, no one learned. I suppose that was the point, but I have had no desire to revisit this world since. I don't really know what I wanted to happen, I just know it as the ending I got....

But, the acting was quite impressive, so I wasn't to bent about the 5 noms.

The hair of the Marisa Tomei character was all wrong. Women with messy lives and limited means usually have perfectly done hair. It is a point of pride.

mini-diversion...Clint Eastwood's house in Play Misty for Me

*TOO. GOD.

Julie:

You'll have to fight me for the house in "What Lies Beneath". I almost wept with envy when I saw the first scene with the house and the lake and then the perfect vintage-sensitive details inside: the bathroom was so perfect. Then again, maybe we could just move in together and swap Irish mother stories.

I'm convinced I will like this movie. Great cast, Dubus' son wrote one of my favorite books House of Sand and Fog, plus We Don't Live Here Anymore, based on one of Dubus' stories was a great movie.
And Little Children was just brilliant.

It's such a random movie from which to covet a house, but I've had dirty dreams about it...waxing the floor, polishing the banister, bathing in the lake. Heh. If we're roommates then I insist that Fridays are fish and chips night. We can indulge in malt vinegar and stories of horrible guilt trips.

I loved this movie.

I felt the dynamics between the two were true of a long married couple.

I especially loved the scened when they were arguing and the doorbell rings and he goes and buys candy, and she is like wtf?

I loved this movie, in large part because I could completely understand the tensions and anger at work. I must say that I identified the most with Sissy Spacek, though I sensed most of the people I saw the movie with felt more for Wilkinson.

My favorite scene? [spoiler] When Sissy slaps Marisa right across the face. Spacek's anger is so absolutely palpable and Tomei's genuine shock is beautifully done.[spoiler]

Tomei's accent was terrible, though. Sorry, as a New Englander, I can't refrain from commenting on that.

Is that Marisa Tomei in the picture at the top of the article? I could swear it's Eva Mendes.

I didn't want to see this because I have a hard time with movies that portray parents losing their children. But this is a great review and I might just have to give it a shot.

Can we have a side of curry sauce with the fish and chips? And I get dibs on the clawfoot bath.

Arkansan - excellent point. The messy-hair-of-entitlement is more often seen at tony liberal arts college in New England.

Yes PLEASE. And go ahead, there's a dead girl's ghost in there anyway :)

Great review, a film handling a sensitive issue very well.

Houses to live in:

Swiss Family Robinson treehouse

The cabin by the lake in Walk the Line

And (cheesy movie but WONDERFUL suburban house) the house from Father of the Bride I and II.

Tammy -- I am so glad you said that first! I thought the movie so utterly honest, until the end, which, like you, I thought was a cheap and easy cop out.

I had a really hard time with this movie. Not to say it isn't beautiful and very well done. It is. I just found it way too sad to deal with. Watched it once and gave it away to my sister.

Love this movie. It is terribly sad, but still, great movie.

Mini-diversion on the houses to live in from movies: The house from The Incredibles. Preferably a non-cartoon version. I have a mid-century modern fetish and that house just made me drool.

One of the great things about this movie is how perfectly it captures a sense of place. For a visual medium, it manages to capture the feeling of the wind off the water, the dew in the early morning air, the smell of fish, and of old wood. The long drives that are so important to the plot are mesmerizing as you see the quality of light changing , tracked by the sounds of the radio broadcasts.

I had a really hard time making it through this movie, but I'm glad I did. I feel like watching it was akin to taking a master class in acting. Such amazing performances. Sissy Spacek blew me away.

Mini-diversion: The cliff house in North by Northwest.

I loved this movie too! It's like Pajiba has been picking my brain lately. I love the scene when the Dr recites the poem.

As for dream houses, I'm going way back to George and Mary Bailey's house in It's A Wonderful Life. So ramshackle, yet so quaint.

Brilliant review of the saddest fucking movie I have ever seen in my life.

i've never watched this movie. i don't like it when something seems like a chore to watch, and in the bedroom just screams that to me. i don't want to be sad--so says the girl whose favorite movies include the sea inside and the unbearable lightness of being. perhaps i should just shut up and add this to my netflix queue.

dream houses: susan sarandon's house in stepmom, joan allen's house in the upside of anger and the practical magic house

Mini-diversion:

1. Jack Ryan's house in Patriot Games. I am not kidding when I say that I bought the DVD just to have a record of that house.

2. Hepburn and Tracy's house in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Old style, but gorgeous.

The house from "The War of the Roses", before they fucking trashed it, of course.

The house in Practical Magic

I'd love to have my own herb room....

And truth be told, I watch reruns of Charmed in part because I like the manor so much.

The house in Life as a House turns out to be pretty amazing.

I felt like the movie version of In The Bedroom was actually better than the short story.

I thought this movie sucked donkey balls. There, I said it.

Julie I thought Little Children was near perfection.

You may not believe this but I was just assigned to watch this movie for my Bereavement final paper in my clinical psychology master's program. It's kind of difficult though seeing as the "bereavement" aspect of the film doesn't start until somewhere in the middle. Now I have to write 15 pages about Matt and Ruth's styles of grief and how I would go about bringing them closure. Yeesh.

Excellent review. This is one of the movies that has always stayed with me. I still feel the same horror, sadness, grief every time I think about it.

House: The beach house in Beaches. I also love the house in Practical Magic.

This is one I missed when it came out because I, being young and silly, thought they were "just trying to copy american beauty." Don't ask. Apparently I hadn't seen any other family dramas. I'll check it out.

Haven't seen this movie, but the review was excellent. Looks like another one to add to the list.

Houses: The house from Mr and Mrs Smith (before they trashed it, as well)

I think it was Manda who said something about the dynamics of a long married couple, which is a perfect description of what's happening on screen before and after Frank's death. It was a little more one sided in American Beauty. This is probably closer to Ordinary People or the Ice Storm in focusing on how married people act, hopelessly polite and dull, but when crisis erupts, the long held angst eventually becomes volcanic. This film portrays that brilliantly. Great cast, great direction and I love the way it was shot.

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After watching one too many sad movies just because someone said it was "excellent, you just gotta see it", I have sworn off movies such as this. Bleh. Do not want.

House diversion: the one in "Benny and Joon". I believe it is in Spokane.

I saw this in the theater and the camera shoots down the street to water took my breath away. I'm sure I cried, I always do.

One of my favorite movies.
As far as houses go, it's cliche, but the house from Something's Gotta Give - awesome.
Also, the house from House of Yes. With the crazy.

A second entry for the house thing -

My childhood fantasy house from The Sound of Music. First, some housekeeping.....

The nazis must go. The kids, too. Shoot them, drowned them in the lake, whatever.

Baroness Von RichCunt must be strung up in the gazebo as a warning to others like her.

Julie Andrews can stay, as long as she understands that the captain is mine. She can stay in the music room and sing or hook up with uncle Max, her choice. Yes, I know what year that movie was made and what Christopher Plummer looks like now. This is my fantasy, so fuck off.

The house I want? Where the family lived in Eve's Bayou. Hell, I'll even live in the fishing camp that the voodoo woman lived in. I miss Louisiana that much sometimes. And I do miss the fishing camps, with the gate in front of the long dock that leads to the front door. Now I'm getting all sentimental and shmoopy. Good thing I'm going home next week.

One more house to fantasize about, with the market the way it is and all...

Forrest Gump's house. Ancient oaks, huge yard, wrap-around veranda, at the end of a long country road. Get me a mint julep already.

And the family house in Rambling Rose.

Yeah, this is just one of those movies I know will be good, the performances and all that. But it's gonna make me sad and I just can't bring myself to watch it.

And I want the house in Beetlejuice, with the nice ghosts and not the crazy one.

Yeah, this is just one of those movies I know will be good, the performances and all that. But it's gonna make me sad and I just can't bring myself to watch it.

I pass up a lot of stuff that way. Got a stockpile of "depressing but good" for when I'm really happy with everything later in life.

Sharon, that's what I was going to write! I loved that house and all its atmosphere. That movie is terrible on a lot of levels, but it's one of the prettiest I've ever seen (people and houses).