Barnes & Noble

Adapted from a John Irving novel -- or rather, the first third of A Widow for One Year -- this provocative drama provides Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger the best roles they’ve had in years. Emotionally complex and, in spots, profoundly unsettling, The Door in the Floor tackles the dissolution of a troubled marriage with unusual intelligence and sophistication. Famous author Ted Cole (Bridges) and his wife, Marion (Basinger), have all the material comforts conducive to easy living, but they just aren’t getting along. Neither has ever really recovered from the death of their two sons in a car crash, and Ted copes with the diminution of Marion’s passion for him by engaging in a series of affairs. One summer, he hires a 16-year-old student named Eddie as an assistant, and the precocious teen immediately becomes attracted to Mrs. Cole -- who, in turn, is drawn to the boy because he resembles her oldest son. As presented by director Tod Williams, the story is rife with ambiguity; at one point it seems fairly obvious that Ted is pushing Marion to have an affair with Eddie, perhaps out of some cruel, sadistic fascination. Bridges plays the brilliant author as extremely manipulative, and therefore engenders little audience sympathy. Basinger, on the other hand, is achingly vulnerable as the emotionally wounded wife and mother who finds herself being drawn into an untenable relationship, partly out of sexual longing and partly out of an unhealthy attraction based on the boy’s resemblance to her dead son. There are no pat resolutions to the clearly defined narrative quandaries. While certainly not for all tastes, The Door in the Floor exhibits a sensibility that bears comparison to some of the best European-made dramas of recent years. It’s totally unlike any Hollywood film we’ve seen this year, an intellectually engaging slice of two very troubled lives. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Tod Williams served as both director and screenwriter for this drama, adapted from a portion of John Irving's novel A Widow for One Year. Ted and Marion Cole (Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger) are a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. After their two teenage sons died in an auto accident, Marion fell into a deep depression from which she has never fully emerged. Meanwhile, Ted has drifted into repeated infidelity, his most recent mistress being the sexually ravenous Mrs. Vaughn (Mimi Rogers), and neither Ted nor Marion are willing or able to devote their full attention to their surviving daughter, Ruth (Elle Fanning). Ted, a successful author of books for children, hires Eddie (Jon Foster), a bright 16-year-old prep-school student, to help him edit his latest manuscript. But Ted is fully aware that Eddie bears a striking resemblance to one of his late sons -- and that this would have a powerful effect on Marion. Eddie quickly develops a strong attraction to his employer's beautiful wife, and Marion, torn between grief and desire, draws him into a sexual relationship that brings the family's many emotional crises to the breaking point. The Door in the Floor also features Bijou Phillips and Louis Arcella. Mark Deming

New York Times

Surely the best movie yet made from Mr. Irving's fiction. It may even belong in the rarefied company of movies that are better than the books on which they are based. A.O. Scott

Los Angeles Times

Bridges turns a two-dimensional image into a presence so vital, so filled with breath and blood, that you uneasily fall in love with his character and abandon all thought of the artifice that's brought it to life. Manohla Dargis

Product Details

• UPC: 025192500022
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Language: Français
• Time: 1:51:00
• Sales Rank: 14,840

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