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'Tis the season for top ten lists. Film critics are fighting over whether The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Black Hawk Down, Moulin Rouge, Mulholland Drive, or Memento is the "movie of the year." (My own such list is at Looking Closer.) Golden Globes and Oscars are just around the bend.

I'd like to hear from you: Did Frodo's quest or Harry Potter's magic move you? Did you sense the truth glimmering through Shrek or Monsters, Inc.? Maybe you treasure a film most people missed, like The Dish or The Road Home. Or perhaps the year's best was a re-issue like Apocalypse Now or 2001: A Space Odyssey. What film meant the most to you in 2001? Why? E-mail me and I'll include some responses in next week's Film Forum.

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A few weeks ago, two religious media critics posted early reactions to In the Bedroom, an acclaimed art-house picture from actor-turned-director Todd Field. But now that the film is in wider release, and accumulating awards and nominations left and right, other critics are writing in about this artful and troubling drama.

The title might suggest that the film is about sex, but it's actually about a marriage. Matt and Ruth Fowler's brief but barbed exchanges have remarkable realism; they're not often contentious, but they're not very communicative with each other either. During times of stress you can see the hairline fractures in their relationship. This is especially true when they discuss their son's love life.

When tragedy strikes, cracks in the foundation spread and broaden. (I'm being carefully vague to avoid spoiling surprises.) Matt and Ruth grope for comfort and consolation, but friends and legal advisors fail them. A great injustice looks like it will remain an irresolvable problem in their lives. Matt (Tom Wilkinson of The Patriot in an astonishing performance) keeps his grief turned inward, nagging his lawyers to get things done. Ruth (the great Sissy Spacek) shouts, complains, and weeps, her rage intensified by her husband's stony silence.

Nowhere is the toll taken on their marriage clearer than "in the bedroom," where conversations end in uncomfortable scowls. We also learn that the "bedroom" is the innermost part of a lobster trap. Matt, whose family carries on a tradition of lobster catching, explains that lobsters in traps can become so tightly packed together that they hurt each other. We're treated to realistic footage of the actors reeling in lobsters, many of whom have clawed each other's limbs off in attempts to survive. A lovely metaphor for marriage, isn't it? Will Matt and Ruth destroy each other as they fail to mourn cooperatively?

J. Robert Parks (The Phantom Tollbooth) praises the acting as "a tour de force." And he finds the exploration timely: "Watching movies like this, which focus on loss and grief, in the wake of Sept. 11, it's hard not to think about the thousands of people who've been thrust into a similar situation. How are they dealing with a life that takes a dramatically unfortunate turn? In the Bedroom offers no easy answers, which is one of the reasons why it rings true. I suspect many will find it a source of comfort and strength in these times."

Doug Cummings writes that the film is "lovingly constructed, beautifully photographed, and carefully acted." But he is disappointed in its final act: "It finds itself irretrievably pulled toward its generic 'criminal justice' plot rather than focusing on its characters or any overarching perspectives of emotional suffering and healing. The first 85 percent was a well-observed drama, but the last act collapsed in the worst way I could have imagined."

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January (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46