The Door in the Floor (2004)

To me, this movie is perfection.

How sad is this?

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Successful children's author Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) lives with his wife Marion (Kim Basinger) and his young daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning) and reside in the East Hamptons. Ted takes in young intern, Eddie (Jon Foster) to do menial jobs. The Cole clan is not on happy terms after the tragic death of their two adolescent sons. This is where Eddie faces up to a more complex initiative. It appears as though Ted and Marion have visions of one of their sons placed in Eddie's soul but they take the approach in more contrasting way.This is a very engaging drama about trying to cope with grief and what kind of steps must be taken in order to move forward. "The Door in the Floor", is very much about character understanding not only towards the audience but towards each other. Writer/director Tod Williams approaches this very sensitive story and handles it with the greatest of care. The movie is truly saturated with loads of emotion and the performances by veterans like Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger.The once loving relationship between Ted and Marion became lost after the tragic death of their sons. The worse part is that they each know one another's vulnerabilities and take their grief in very contrasting perspectives. Ted has grown to becoming an alcoholic and has been a philanderer towards the ladies. Marion's just can't believe that her boys were taken away too soon and has lost all emotions. It wasn't until a young man comes into the fray and their lives have taken a sudden impact.Even though book-to-movie adaptations have been frowned upon by the many audience members mostly because they tend to leave out a lot of details and at times very important ones, Williams focuses on the first third of John Irving's novel "A Widow for One Year". The movie script was provocative and the characters are what we might have expected them from the novel to be.Bridges' character as a children's author seems like a guy who has no patience for nonsense. He's everything you would expect from an eccentric artist, not afraid of roaming around the house in the nude and exposing his complex lifestyles towards his fresh new intern Eddie. Eddie is still green and inexperienced, and is used as nothing more than a designated driver, so that Ted may continue pursuit his sorrows in the drink. He shows no care in helping the young man in improving his writing skills. Marion seems to be living a double life. She has now become a stone-faced beauty of wonder where she touch no one and no one touches her. The other life comes out from a past which a myriad of framed photographs hanging across the corridor of her two sons when they were alive. This kind of grief is about as real as it can get as she can't get past the fact that her sons are dead and just doesn't want to let go. She enjoys the company of her four year old daughter, Ruth played by the younger sister and equally talented Elle Fanning. When she freely lets Eddie lure his sexual fascinations with her, it's like she is giving him his liberation as token of appreciation and nothing more. Which is contrary to Ted's seductive ways towards his model for hire Evelyn Vaughan which shifts from fondness to utter forcefulness.The final moments of the film is quite abrupt. Eddie starts to take a pivotal step towards his writing career. It's like everything he encountered has been forgotten as goes away at doodling words on a notepad at a framing shop.It's just those little nuances that make this film more than just the typical psychological drama. The sights, the smells, and the colours all add significance to this emotionally charged psychological drama. The title of the movie is a metaphor. It's the door that awaits you to world that's too grim to converse with even further. The door in the floor is symbol of a final resting place for the soul that one can not escape from. Where the world is a cruel place and the grief and pain is something that you must overcome, but can ever be completely erased.

I spent the first half of this movie utterly despising it, but in the end I admit it's a good movie. If you're not easily offended.The story revolves around the extremely dysfunctional marriage (and not in a funny way either) between a couple surviving the wreckage of a tragedy. A writer (Jeff Bridges) and his often catatonically depressed wife (Kim Basinger) are failing miserably at raising their young child (Elle Fanning). Failing miserably is the understatement of the year. Their actions border on child abuse including overt extramarital affairs, leaving the bedroom door wide open so that their 4-year-old daughter witnesses sex doggie style, leaving her unattended or generally ignored much of the time resulting in serious accidents, and (although this is debatable depending on how open you are with your kids) walking around butt naked. Oh, maybe I should mention that one of them commits statutory rape. 60 times.If you can get past that, you're in the clear.You soon realize, or should soon realize, that this is the story of some individuals who are using tragedy to excuse their selfishness while obliviously wreaking havoc on a small child's mind. And that is the central theme of the film and the key to understanding the cryptic reference of the title "The Door in the Floor".As you can see, this is a very challenging and possibly controversial story. In that respect it reminds me of the Terry Gilliam film "Tideland" which revolves around a 30-year-old man's relationship with a pre-teen girl; the audience is supposed to be disturbed, and yet we are supposed to dig deeper past the shock to understand the meaning.So if you watch this movie, don't spend your time trying to figure out who's the "good guy" like I did, or you'll find yourself hating the experience. Instead take it for what it is: the story of some very flawed individuals stumbling through life the only way they know how.Due to the extremely awkward sexual situations, I do NOT recommend this as a date movie, a romantic evening with your hubby/wife, and for the love of Moses do NOT watch this movie with your kids. Or your parents.

The central act in this movie is a married woman's dalliance with a 15-year-old boy. Kim Bassinger is a woman who looks convincingly like she could be capable of this or something like this.She is action. By way of explanation, she throws herself into this escapade in reaction to the death of their daughter. The relationship is shown in a selfishness which resigns everything, as her philosopher husband points out. She is literally riding a 15-year-old boy, having an exclusively carnal relationship with someone impossibly young for her. Her husband dispassionately makes plans for a divorce, while maintaining civil relations with the boy. But for nothing is this sexual coupling going to stop before it exhausts itself. So flagrant is it that the boy brags to another woman he has 60 lays under his belt which must be in the course of weeks or a month. So careless that a young child inadvertently walks in on it. There are various interesting facets to the story such as the husbands assurance to the boy he will never be left in a room with the young daughter, regardless of what he is getting away with with the wife. And of course Elle Fanning is a story in herself. So that we happily participate in her preciousness.About the only reservation I had was Jeff Bridges either because of previous casting or as he acts it, comes across as too Southern for a role like this. Obviously, the events could occur to a Southerner, but his accent is an annoying incongruity. But this is in no way a serious detraction.

'The Door in the Floor' happens to be based on John Irving's 'Widow For A Year'. I like most of his work and they are sort of set in a strange world where the main characters are in search for something. 'The Door In The Floor' falls on the same line. It essentially shows two characters, Ted and Marion, going through a chronic grieving process which they both experience differently. While Ted is still somewhat in touch with the world (finding things (e.g. affair with models, building a pool) to keep himself distracted) albeit very loosely as is evident in his disheveled and neglected lifestyle, Marion has lost all her feelings except that of grief. Then there are two other characters who are in search of something. Their daughter Ruth is trying to find her way in her mother's lost world and her way around the house coming to terms with her family loss in her own childly way. There's Eddie who's a fan of Ted and himself aspires to be a writer but he too is looking for something.Tod Williams presents some wonderful visuals. The feeling of loss and loneliness is well created. For example, with the use of weather where the overcast sky adds to the silent cry of the characters. Yet, there's a sense of humour (typical Irving style humour) that appears at the right moment. The cinematography, especially the close-ups and zooming are well done. The score is whimsical but rightfully gentle.Both Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger give beautifully skilled subtle performances. Bridges portrays Ted's loss of focus brilliantly yet he also effectively manages to portray him as a loving father. Basinger steals the show. I remember one particular scene that is among the finest examples of understated acting. It's the scene where Eddie confronts her about her sons' death and then we witness her expression change very slowly while remaining silent. Jon Foster is confident in his role and holds his own with the veteran co-stars. Elle Fanning is okay even though at times appears to be too much of a chatterbox. Mimi Rogers does a fine job of playing the neurotic model.'The Door In The Floor' is not one that would appeal to everyone because the 'point' isn't directly obvious but it's a story well told and a film well made and at the end one does feel a sense of satisfaction as the characters finally take a step forward.