From the Vault: In the Bedroom

With the Academy Awards coming this month, I thought that I would watch some movies that had been nominated for the award in the past few years. While most people are familiar with past winners, few remember those that were nominated but did not win. Therefore, I started with In the Bedroom which was released in 2001 and was nominated for five academy awards including best picture, best actor, best actress, and best supporting actress. The plot of the movie centers around the Fowler family which is comprised of Frank Fowler, his mother and his father. Frank is a 20 something year old who is spending his last summer at home before going to graduate school. His plans are complicated when he falls in love with an older woman who has two children and an extremely abusive husband from whom she is separated. For the first half of the movie, Frank struggles with his decision to go to college and believes that he may defer his enrollment for another year in order to spend more time with his new love. Frank's parents disagree with his choice and fear that his relationship with his older girlfriend will jeopardize his entire future. When tragedy strikes, the once "perfect" family is severed and they must try to find their way back to each other.

The acting in this film is superb and is clearly worthy of its various nominations. The first half of the film was extremely close to perfection. The rising action created such tension between the characters that it spilled out of the TV and made a large pit in my stomach. However, once the film reaches its climax it appears that it has few places to go. Being that it reached its peak early in the film, there is almost an hour in which the two main characters looked at each other with knowing glances and did little else. Yet, the last ten minutes move so quickly that it leaves the viewer wondering why such action was delayed for so long! Overall, the acting is great, the plot is certainly intriguing, but the pacing makes the movie seem lacking and not well thought out.

-DLP