I figured In the Bedroom would be depressing, but I didn't count on its being so damn dull -- the banality of grief, as it were. I would have walked out of it after about an hour, but I had planned to sneak into Black Hawk Down afterwards, so I stayed, watching the movie move like molasses underwater on a cold day (and seething at the moron beside me who kept her nylon windbreaker on, which made an irritating noise every time she moved, and since she was evidently as bored as I was, I got the rustling coat quite often as she fidgeted, plus her clicking fingernails, plus her snapping gum. Clearly, my Annoy-o-Magnet is working just fine). Hmmm, let's combine the natural reserve of New Englanders with the repression of grief -- what do you mean, that doesn't equal "gripping movie"? It's very difficult to pull off the visual and moving expression of internal emotions, particularly if this is the basis of your entire movie, and director Todd Field just doesn't succeed.
Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson, as the parents of a young man who's killed by his girlfriend's ex-husband, are both quite good; there's a wonderful scene between them in their kitchen, toward the end of the movie (or, what I thought was the end -- it kept going on and on and on) that has the emotional intensity that the director probably had in mind for the entire movie. But it comes too late, and it's just not worth the two hours of dullness leading up to it. The characters do stupid things (ever hear of calling the police, anyone? Anyone?), the supporting actors are pretty weak, and the writing isn't very good. Nothing redeems the film beyond the performances of the two lead actors, but even they aren't enough to make this worthwhile.
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