Skip to main content

In the Bedroom (2001)

Monday, June 1, 2009

In The Bedroom. Feature film. (2001, 130 mins) IMDB

...two stories written independently but similar--spooky...

T

here are many similarities between this story and my novel MY DEARBORN. It's scary. I wrote my novel without any knowledge of this film or story and likewise with the people involved in this film. Parallel development. It's spooky, yet, given the nature of storytelling, there are only so many characters and ideas and it's difficult to be truly original.

The story takes place in a sleepy village on the east coast of Maine. People aren't in a hurry. There's time to take a boat out on the water, pull up lobster cages and harvest the catch. You'd expect that from fisherman, but a local family doctor does it with his son. It's a different sort of place.

The doctor's son is looking at what universities to go to or even if he should go to school. He saw his father get educated and feels it didn't do him any good, but there's more than that. This young man became involved with a woman who left her husband. She's much older with two young sons. He's mad for her. She's mad for him. There's a new family in the making except her estranged husband is violent and jealous. His parents, particularly his mother, doesn't think it's a good idea. They are trying to steer him away from her and towards school.

There was a point when I asked myself how was this story going to end? The answer: not good. I expected this young man to die, I didn't expect it would happen by the end of Act I, but that's what happens. The explosive husband comes to the house with a handgun. He shots him in the face and kills him.

What follows in Act II is the surviving parents dealing with the fall out. The loss of their son. The lack of justice from the court system. The blame game.

When it seems likely the murder will result in nothing more than a short sentence for manslaughter, the friendly family doctor takes matter into his own hands. Along with a friend, he kidnaps the man, takes him to a remote cottage where the doctor kills him with a pistol. The two of them bury his body in the woods.

The film ends with the doctor returning home in the pre-dawn hours. His wife asks him if he did it. He says nothing as he climbs into bed.

The film fades to black.

It's odd how some will criticize DIRTY HARRY for its vigilante justice, but praise this film when a similar brand of justice is metered out. Go figure.

There is interesting lack of dialogue in this film. A great deal is said without any words. That's possible when actors can bring nuisances to their performances--particularly in their facial expressions.

This film is about loss. The loss of a son. The loss of a marriage because of it. The loss of potential for that son whether it be with the woman or in school. It's also about trying to recoup and recover from those losses.

Posted 2009/06/01 at 20h51ET in Movie Commentary.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Please, Please, Please, No More

Saturday, October 8, 2011 ... what is the best way to start your novel ... C ount them. One. Two. I downloaded two thriller e-books from amazon.com, both published by the author, and they both started the same way: the character waking up and going about some morning ritual. Both books were in the top 100 bestsellers of Mystery & Thrillers Fiction. Both had many positive reviews. Those facts seemed encouraging, but once I read the opening scene, I stopped. I did not continue. But James that seems harsh? Perhaps, yes, but the writer is sending a signal with such an opening. It says, I have more to learn about writing thrillers for today’s audience. Why do I say that? Because a waking-up scene is mundane. It’s ordinary. It happens to us everyday. We don’t read thrillers for the mundane and ordinary. We read them for the extraordinary. We read them to live vicariously through the characters. We read them to be entertained. There is nothing in those waking-up scenes th...
2 comments
Read more

Analysis of Amazon E-book Fiction Bestsellers (Week #1)

Sunday, October 30, 2011 ... trying to make sense of the amazon bestsellers and pricing for e-books ... E ach hour Amazon updates its bestsellers lists. I have taken a daily snapshot of the top 20 bestsellers in the e-book fiction list for the past week. See here . What can be learnt from these data? 1. 4 out 5 of the bestsellers are from print or traditional authors. Most are brand-named authors who dominate the print bestsellers. 2. Almost all of the authors have multiple titles to their credit. The author of The Help is a notable exception. 3. The e-book prices of indie authors are substantially lower than print authors. For the most part, their titles are priced at $0.99. 4. The books on the list fall into four categories: (i) pre-release from brand-named authors, (ii) new or recently released titles (iii) long-term bestsellers (greater than one year), (iv) backlist titles. Indie authors fall into (ii) and (iv). 5. The indie authors includes authors who ...
2 comments
Read more

Checked Off

Sunday, April 11, 2010 ... one To Do is off the list ... I recently completed a task that was completely irrational. It was a fixture on my To-Do list because I always put it off. This week I decided to change that. I dug through my files of sketches and drawings and scanned them into my computer. A simple concept, sure, but tedious and time consuming. I suggest wearing latex gloves or buying hand lotion, but maybe that's a personal choice...Anyway, I now have a folder with 1.2 GBs of JPEG and PSD files. Here's an example from 1992. Right, where's that To-Do list? I want to sketch a line on it. Posted 2010/04/11 at 13h54ET in JamesPiper.com.
Post a Comment
Read more