Nick Stahl and Sissy
Spacek star in the independent film "In the Bedroom,"
based on the short story by Andres Dubus.
By Emily Pauker
Daily Bruin Contributor
With a provocative title like “In the Bedroom,” one
might expect a provocative movie. However, despite whatever
innuendo it suggests, the film provokes thought about the American
family rather than sex.
Based on a short story by the late Andres Dubus, and adapted
into a screenplay by writer and director Todd Field, “In the
Bedroom” tells the story of a Maine family confronted with
more than just a simple family feud. It opened Friday in Los
Angeles and has started buzz about a potential Oscar nomination for
Sissy Spacek.
The film has also already done well at Sundance, winning best
actor and actress awards for Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek.
When Field was doing research for the film he talked to a Maine
lobsterman about lobstering and different parts of the trap. Field
said that while talking to a fisherman he heard the trap referred
to as a bedroom and he thought it was an interesting metaphor.
 Photos from Miramax Films Marisa Tomei
and Nick Stahl in a scene from Todd Field’s new
movie "In the Bedroom." “This film is about marriage. You
share all of your hopes and your dreams, your fights, and your
love. You decompress, and all of this happens at night, behind the
door, in a bedroom. There’s scenes from a marriage.
That’s where everything important happens,” Field
said.
A family confronts the consequences of the choices of one
beautiful summer that shake and change it forever. What starts out
as a love story and a story of transition quickly transforms into a
portrait of grief.
Sissy Spacek (“Carrie,” “Crimes of the
Heart”) plays a Brown educated, New York-born mother Ruth
Fowler, a high school choir teacher. Ruth is married to Maine
doctor Matt Fowler, played by Tom Wilkinson, (“Shakespeare in
Love,” “The Patriot”). Their son Frank Fowler,
played by Nick Stahl, (“Disturbing Behavior,” “A
Man Without a Face”), is a college boy home for the summer
who has an affair with local single mother Natalie Strout, played
by Marisa Tomei (” My Cousin Vinnie”).
Field’s Maine background contributed to his work, as he
set Dubus’ New England-based characters in his native Maine.
Maine has a large impact on the mindset and environment of the
characters. To help capture Maine in his characters, Field
incorporated traits based on composites of family and friends.
“If you took the setting out of Maine … for instance, if
you took it down to Massachusetts it would be different. If you put
it in the South or in an urban environment you’d see (the
ending) coming. There’s something intensely pure in our minds
about what is America and that last bastion of that is in the state
of Maine,” Field said.
When Field was casting for this film he was careful to choose
what he calls “character actors,” actors who
aren’t cast in the same type of role continually. He chose
accomplished versatile actors for the many roles.
He cast Marisa Tomei in the dramatic role of Natalie and Sissy
Spacek in the challenging role of Ruth because of her particular
versatility as an actor.
“(Sissy) has always been one of my favorite actors because
she’s a character actor. She also happens to be a movie star.
Her work has no vanity … There’s a gravity to her work
because she’s so intelligent and a smart actor is an
extremely valuable thing,” Field said.
Spacek, takes much pride in being seen as a character
actress.
“I take it as such a huge compliment to be called a
character actress. Because I’m untrained I had a little bit
of training in the beginning. I’ve had on the job training.
I’ve been blessed with working with four great directors and
great actors. I’ve learned from all of them,” Spacek
said with her light Southern accent.
The role of Ruth was especially difficult because it dealt with
a mother who is experiencing a tremendous internal struggle. The
internal struggle within Ruth is manifested in tiny subtleties.
“I thought of (Ruth) as if there was a war going on inside
of her but on the exterior she was just very reserved,”
Spacek said.
Field believes that as an actor Spacek focuses more on the
character’s situation rather than the character herself.
“(Sissy) starts out her questions with everybody else than
finally the last questions (she) starts asking are about her
character … So you have a dialogue and a narrator in the best
sense because you never lose the story. The character only exists
within this story,” Field said.
This film does provoke thought about the meaning of the American
family and the things done out of love for someone. However, the
question for the academy is, is it thought provoking enough for the
Oscar?