Ted Cole is a successful children’s author who has recently separated from his wife after the couple had suffered for years over the tragic deaths of their two teenaged sons. But unlike his wife, whose depression and withdrawal from life has made her indifferent to their preschool-aged daughter—a child conceived as a replacement for their loss—Ted dotes on the girl. Instead, Ted, in his off-time—which is most of the time—philanders, sketches vulgar and degrading female nudes, withdraws into his private squash court, and stumbles about with scotch in hand.

And it is into this fragmenting world that Eddie, a hopeful young writer and Exeter student, has stumbled. His dad, an old school chum of Ted’s, has recommended to his awe-struck son that it would be a terrific experience to spend his summer vacation acquainting himself with the daily grind of a writer’s life by sampling the heady atmosphere on Martha’s Vineyard toting and fetching for one of his betters. And things in the Cole household appear to be very much what they seem, unfortunately. Ted (Jeff Bridges), a man easily at home in his own skin, cavorts around nude in front of Eddie (Jon Foster). And then there is Ted’s daughter Ruthie (Elle Fanning), a precocious and demanding four-year-old who spends a great deal of her time in near-religious rumination over the black and white photos of her departed and unknown older brothers. Though most of Eddie’s time is spent transcribing Ted’s work, the rest is devoted to conveying his boss to and from his current tryst. It seems that Eddie’s greatest contribution to this mix is the possession of—something that Ted’s lifestyle has robbed him of—a current driver’s license.

But it is the allure of the distracted Marion Cole (Kim Basinger) that has Eddie bothered. Alone, saddened and still very much desirable, Marion’s overpowering feminine presence in the small apartment in town where she sleeps and Eddie spends his days working suddenly overwhelms this virginal youth one afternoon. The resulting laying on of hands (hand?) by the aroused Eddie over articles of her clothing, and subsequent discovery by her, doesn’t result in the predictable shock and expulsion we would otherwise expect. Instead, Marion responds with tenderness and understanding; perhaps an understanding that only Mrs. Robinson could fully appreciate.

Director Tod Williams has taken a portion of John Irving’s novel “Widow for One Year,” and pieced together yet another predictable story of a couple’s foundering through the ruins of their lives; two people reaching out for the touch of another human being, no matter how degrading, ruinous or taboo the consequences. What is not predictable about this film is how beautifully this cinematic suffering can be portrayed when a director wants us to see how frightening quiet this suffering can often be. Williams, to his credit, saw no need for his characters to smash the crockery or rend the furnishings to splinters to convey their pain. Instead, this quiet desperation and marital meltdown has given Basinger and Bridges—especially the latter—a platform for some of the finest work of their careers.

Though newcomer Foster has neither the cutesy looks of a Toby McGuire nor the volatile libido of a young Dustin Hoffman, he does possess—in a face that can register sympathy, devotion and disgust, quite often in then same scene—a bland and deceptive demeanor of a youth who still seems several dates away from his first backseat encounter, all the while playing the role of witting seducee.

But it is to Bridges that the lion’s share of the kudos must go. With this film he has been blessed with a role that allows him to wrap his prodigious talent around a character so self-absorbed and flawed that we can see the barely controlled pain reflected in the cold steel eyes and droopy expression of Bridges’ face . His Ted is a man who has entered his middle years with the wealth and success that only a handful of writers ever reach. But the death of his boys has hollowed out a great emptiness within him. Though he adores his Ruthie, he is a distracted father at best; a man no longer capable of the concerns of others. Instead, he has become a victim of his own sloth and lust, only going through the motions that once made up his daily routine.

It is no matter of hapless irony that Ted Cole is an author and illustrator of children’s books. Bereft of his beloved boys Cole’s own inner child is the one that has been crying out in grief. It is the character of Eddie, who, though still very young, brings with him the sensibilities of an adult. It is Eddie who gently rebuffs the sloppy and childish Ted at just the right moments. And it is Eddie who provides to both Ted and Marion the human contact they could no longer find within each other.

The Door in the Floor is an image ripe with metaphor: On the surface it’s the title of one of Ted’s most beloved books about a ghost child who is not allowed to open the one thing forbidden him in all the world. In the film this door imagery is equated with that of the womb into which none of us may return…or at least shouldn’t. But that door can also represent that Pandora’s Box from which we all must escape from time to time, and within which we all must otherwise live.



Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age