tbills2 The Door in the Floor is an easy movie to fall in love with. It's a real beautiful film. It is so very good on its own fair worth of values displaying such a deeply heartfelt story while within fine movie production. Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger each do fantastic jobs giving forth their simply flawless performances that were either going to make or break the movie but rest assured that Bridges and Basinger make the movie with acting greatness presented in such ease. In The Door in the Floor, there's a lot of sadness, a lot of heart, and a lot of nudity, and nudity and sex is involved in nearly all of the crucial story points, or climaxes, more like it. I'm so very gracious to Kim Basinger, Jeff Bridges and Mimi Rogers for baring their nude parts, especially Mimi Rogers, and especially Jeff Bridges, but especially Mimi Rogers. The Door in the Floor has an ever freely open plot mostly dealing with the sorrows of life and love. The characters do create a nice bond to the viewers in this personally inviting film. Despite that the story is presented so methodically slow, it overcomes the daunting task of not becoming boring by featuring excellently natural dialogue while gently moving through its interesting and well-framed story line. I only wish that this review might do something the same. The Door in the Floor is so very well assembled from scene to scene. It may be too much drama but it's touching.

William James Harper Just when I think the moral reprobates making films these days have hit bottom, I stumbled onto this disgusting movie on Hulu. (At least I didn't have to pay to see this rubbish). The movie has virtually no redeeming qualities. Two adults, who have separated, each use a teen age boy to their own ends which is nothing short of child abuse. The wife has sex with the boy and the husband approves! The movie goes down from that point. There is nothing entertaining or interesting about the characters. Indeed, if ever there were an argument for disallowing couple to become parents these two would be candidates of the first degree. Don't waste your time on this pointless movie. Let the effete pseudo-intellectuals that wrote glowing reviews of The Door wallow in this filth. I'm sure you can find something better to do with your time.

vertigo_dog "The Door in the Floor" is, from the beginning, a modernist fable. The title sequence shows close-ups of drawings in a children's book and a subtly buoyant but haunting score plays. These two elements foreshadow the combination of satire and dramatic truth to follow, which is exactly the combination you need to properly translate a John Irving novel (this one is based on "A Widow for One Year") to screen. "The Door in the Floor" currently holds the distinction of being the most successful such translation.In "A Widow for One Year," the story follows a woman named Ruth Cole from girlhood to an adulthood in Amsterdam hiding in a closet from a prostitute-murderer. The book ends with Ruth attempting to reconcile her emotionally manipulative relationship with her father and her absent one with her mother. "The Door in the Floor," adapted and directed by Tod Williams, only covers Ruth's childhood and the focus is on the crumbling marriage of her parents, Ted and Marion Cole, and their manipulation of a young man named Eddie.5-year-old Ruth is fascinated with photographs that pepper the hallway walls of her older brothers, who died as teenagers in a car accident (it's explained straightaway) before she was born. Her father Ted (a never-better Jeff Bridges) is a children's book writer and the title of the movie is taken from the title of one of those fake children's books. Ruth's mother Marion (a similarly career-best Kim Basinger) is a woman withdrawn and, in one of the movie's first scenes, Ted asks her for a separation. They share the main house and a small apartment alternately, a week or so each at a time. In the same scene just mentioned, Ted also announces he's hired a young assistant for the summer: Eddie (Jon Foster's breakthrough role). In an ironic(?) twist, Eddie happens to look like those deceased sons and he and Marion eventually start an affair. From there, the film follows the intertwined lives of these three over one summer, Eddie acting as intermediary between these two deeply wounded people. "The Door in the Floor" is a character study. Parents of children who've died young always strike me as alternately connected and detached, like they've realized something essential of life and feel guilty about it and this film illuminates that possibility in both Ted and Marion. They are two sides of a distressed, worn coin. Ted has adulterous relationships with other women under the pretense of his art; he draws them naked, but his attitude in a particular scene with Mimi Rogers as his model is one of condescension, making her believe he is liberating her when he is actually humiliating her. He treats Marion and Eddie similarly. Marion, on the other hand, treats Eddie with care, nurturing him. You sense this is probably very much the same way their relationships with their sons were, Ted the scrutinizing father and Marion the encouraging mother. That Marion's relationship with Eddie becomes sexual has no incestuous bearing. I think the guilt the characters of Ted and Marion experience day-to-day is what motivates most of their actions.They are largely unsympathetic, so it's to the credit of Bridges and Basinger (both of whom, while I don't generally go for awards-show-snobbery, were unjustly snubbed come awards season) that they are so rich and layered. Part of that is helped by Williams' palette choice. The film is awash in muted grays, browns and blues, with splashes of peach and lavender. It helps the rich dialogue shine and serves to enhance the satire of the situation, much the way "Sideways" uses the California countryside to the same effect. The world of the Coles is surreal to Eddie (whose introductory scene, before he's entered this universe, is set in deep browns and oranges, setting the stage for just how out-of-his-element this young man will be) and the color scheme and voyeuristic, hazy cinematography keep the audience as continually blindsided as Eddie by the on-screen actions. Williams has made an ambitious decision to drop 2/3's of a book in making a movie based on it, but it works brilliantly because he lets the characters grow and shrink on their own. To paraphrase a line in "Wonder Boys" - He respects his audience enough to forget us and the result is a film with not a single moment that feels false. It's the fairy tale of the 21st century: twisted, comical, tragic and true.If nothing else, see this film for Bridges and Basinger alone. These are among the best performances any American actor has given.

Chrysanthepop '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.