Review of the DVD, The Door In the Floor, starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger

It's been several years since the film The Door In the Floor was out at the movie theaters and then appeared on DVD. I've watched it a number of times during this period on disc, and I did so again last night. The film always causes me to take a hard look at my own life, both past and present, wondering about the things I've done and what I can do to change it for the better.

First of all, I've been a big John Irving fan since The World According To Garp was first published in paperback back in 1981. That's thirty years ago, and it seems like a lifetime. I've read a number of Irving's novels over the years, including: The Hotel New Hampshire, A Prayer For Owen Meany, Cider House Rules, The Fourth Hand, and A Widow For One Year. I've loved all of these books in their own special way because each of them made me laugh, cry, gasp out loud in both surprise and shock, and caused me to care for each of the characters as if they were my actual friends, instead of just fictional images created by author mind. That's one of the great talents of John Irving. He's able to write such convincing and true-to-life characters that the reader learns to care for them and to feel the emotional impact of their ups and downs. It takes a true master of the written word to accomplish something like that.

The movie, The Door In the Floor, is based on the first third of Irving's 1998 novel, A Widow For One Year. The film covers a summer where the future for each of the story's wonderfully-drawn characters is set in motion. The book, however, not only covers the summer, but the next thirty-five years and how everything eventually comes back in full circle for each person. Where as the novel centers around the daughter, Ruth Cole, and her life, the film in many ways focuses on Eddie O'Hare (Jon Foster), the young teenager who comes to the beach community of Long Island to be Ted Cole's (Jeff Bridges) writing assistant for a summer that will gradually change the course of his entire life.

The story deals with Ted Cole, a failed novelist but successful author and artist of children's books and the turmoil that both he and his wife, Marion (Kim Basinger), are going through after the tragic death of their two teenage sons. They now have a five-year-old daughter named Ruth, but Marion has placed a wall between her and her daughter. She's afraid to love again and to risk that person being taken away from her like her sons were. Ted hires a writing assistant from the private school where he and his two sons once attended to help him with odd jobs. One of the jobs is to be Ted's driver since he lost his driver's license due to his drunkeness. As Marion later tells Eddie, "Ted hired you to be his driver."

The writing assistant, Eddie O'hare, also wants to be an author and is excited about this unique opportunity. Unfortnately, Eddie becomes somewhat of a pawn between Ted and Marion. Both have agreed to a trial separation for the summer with each taking turns staying at the house with Ruth and then living at an apartment in town. When Eddie isn't driving Ted to one of his daily tyrsts with a local, married woman, he's befriending Marion and eventually becoming her confidant and lover. The thing, as in most relationships, all is not what it seems to be on the surface, but Eddie is too young to see or even understand...that is until the very end.

The movie is brillantly written and directed for the screen by Tod Williams with John Irving's complete blessing. Like the novels of Irving, the film will have you laughing like when Marion first catches Eddie masturbating with her lingerie and then they both find themselves embarrassed by the whole situation. Sadness is there, too. There's a scene when Eddie asks Marion about the accident that killed her sons, and she totally shuts down like a zombie in her inability to either talk or to think about the incident. Eddie, of course, falls in love with Marion. She, however, is unable to love him back, or to love anyone for that matter. Ted is hoping that Marion will snap out of her depression and eventually come back to him. And, the child, Ruth (played by Elle Fanning), is an island onto herself, not understanding the raging emotions soaring around her as Ted and Marion seek to come to grips with the fact that things aren't going to work out for either of them.

The Door In the Floor made me laugh, cry, and perhaps come away with a clearer understanding about the complexities of life and how we're some times unable to grasp the solutions, even when they're right in front of us. It also showed me how quick we are to judge others without fully comprehending what they may be going through and thus empathizing with them in their attempt to deal with their own problems in whatever way they possibly can. This movie is one that will make the viewer think and hopefully expand in their awareness concerning the games of life. It's powerful stuff, and it's protrayed magnificently by all the actors in the film. I dare say that both Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger deserved Academy Award nominations for their roles in this movie. They were that good.

The DVD also has some excellent "extras" on it with an extensive documentary on the making of the movie, a long interview with author, John Irving, how a scene is put together, and a feature commentary.

I hope that this review will cause the readers of it to rent the movie and to see for themselves what I'm talking about, and then maybe to read the novel down the road so they can find out what happens to Ted, Marion, Ruth, and Eddie over the next thirty-five years. Highly recommended!