The Door in the Floor
The John Irving novel A Widow for One Year, upon which The Door in the Floor is based, spans many dozens of years actually, chronicling the sordid history of the Cole family. But writer/director Tod Williams, recognizing the inability to adapt such an expansive tome, chose to make a film from only the first third of the novel and examines the crumbling marriage of Ted and Marion Cole. Their marriage is already on the rocks when Ted hires a summer intern to help him with his latest children's book—an intern who too eerily resembles the personalities of both of the Cole's deceased teenage sons. Soon the young student finds himself in the middle of a very strange domestic dispute indeed, as the Coles use him in their own way to fill the void left by their sons. It's a heady drama with comedy sprinkled in judiciously but ineffectively. The whole film feels extremely sterile, a sheen which radiates mostly from Kim Basinger's zombie-like performance and covers everything it touches (though in fairness, there really isn't any other way to play her catatonic character). Jeff Bridges is great as usual, this time as an egoist with an heroic self-delusion for how well he has overcome the tragedy in his life.
- December 22, 2008
DVD Extras
The bonus features are few, but meaty. Leading the way is an interview with John Irving about the general difficulty in adapting his works for the screen, and how well he thinks this one went. That is followed up by an episode of the always nifty Sundance Channel documentary series Anatomy of a Scene, which examines a funny moment in the middle of the film in which Ted confronts his angry mistress.