Tom Wilkinson has been a prolific actor for many years. Roles in Batman Begins, Michael Clayton, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are among his big-screen accomplishments.  With John Adams and The Kennedys as some of his television work. He’s considered one of his generation’s best character actors. The best performance of his career is as Matt Fowler, a doctor in the small town of Camden, Maine in the Oscar-nominated In the Bedroom. 

Matt Fowler (Tom Wilkinson) is married to Ruth (Sissy Spacek). They are the parents of Frank (Nick Stahl), a young man on the brink of college. He’s working as a fisherman and seeing an older woman, Natalie Stout (Marissa Tomei) who is already married to another man. They previously had two children together. Richard Strout (William Mapother) can’t stand to see his wife with another man. He takes his anger out on Frank and tragedy strikes this small community.

Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson both were nominated and won various awards for their roles as the grieving parents of their slain son. Anybody in these roles would be very emotional at the loss of their child. When things aren’t going well in the court case this makes this worse. These people have to deal with a lot and the way they handle everything isn’t in the best way. Anger and violence ensue as things start to spiral out of control.

Wilkinson takes this character to unusual places. He uses the situation to create various states of emotional stress and channels that into something unexpected. He hangs out with the owner of a diner who is a friend of his.  This helps him take his mind off what happened to his son. The same goes for Spacek.  She spends time with a friend of her character as well. This takes up the bulk of the second act of the film.  Their grieving is still very prevalent in their lives though.

Todd Field gained notoriety as an actor in films like Twister and Eyes Wide Shut but transitioned into a director with In the Bedroom which was his directorial debut.  Hes since directed two other great films Little Children and Tar. He uses the grief of these parents as if a ship sailing in the ocean and the performances of Spacek and Wilkerson as its anchor. They hold this ship in place with everything they give to their performances. As the movie progresses Field shows them gradually unraveling before our eyes. It’s very sad what they are dealing with through the second act of the film.

I think to myself how would I react if something like this happened to me? I just can’t say I would react the way these two people reacted in this movie. As the film gets into the third act anger starts to take over their lives. They aren’t getting along with each other and various scenarios of encounters they have in their lives cause things to get worse. Opposite one another Spacek and Wilkerson go at each other in one specific scene. That is when the proverbial ship hits the fan between the two. Blame becomes the norm and Spacek and Wilkerson use it as a weapon.

In the Bedroom is a character study of the grief of parents going through something unimaginable. Their emotions and how they act after the tragedy is something anybody would go through. Opposite one another Spacek and Wilkerson both give great performances. In fact, awards-worthy performances.  Field uses close-ups and various stages of grief to great effect. This is a film that takes a difficult subject matter and makes it a human character study. It’s sad thinking about this film in the context that it exists in with the passing of Wilkerson but that’s what I had to do to review this film. 

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen