'In the Bedroom' is no sleeper

By Mike Clark
USA TODAY

'In the Bedroom' Stars: Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Marisa Tomei, Nick Stahl, William Mapother Director: Todd Fields Distributor: Miramax Rated: R for violence and language Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 4 Associated Press/Miramax Films

The first couple's circumstances lead to the other's as one movie „ the tenuous romance we think we're going to see „ morphs into something else best left unsaid. (Its effectiveness depends largely on the element of surprise.)

Positioned for award consideration after months of positive buzz on the festival circuit, Bedroom succeeds with performances that get some of their power from imaginative casting. As a small-town music teacher, here's Sissy Spacek losing her temper more than once (fairly rare in her career „ and this time, without telekinetic help). Even more surprising is Tom Wilkinson (Gen. Cornwallis in The Patriot and the fired executive in The Full Monty) as a Maine physician and lobster-boat fancier.

As for their college-bound son (Nick Stahl), he's fancying an older woman (Marisa Tomei) with two kids and an estranged husband (William Mapother), who we can see is an obvious agitator from the time he crashes a family cookout. Though Wilkinson winks at his son's romance, we sense that Spacek's character may be seething under her civil smile and held tongue. Not long after the young man announces he might pass up college to remain with his unambitious (though admittedly trapped) lover, one event changes everyone's lives. It's a powerful scene, but it's just the beginning. This movie is really about the fallout.

It's tough to recall such a potent screen treatment of the inability to grieve in a small town. People take sides, you run into people you don't want to see at a dinky market, while poker-playing cronies are skittish about making their usual jokes.

Director/co-writer Todd Field, who played Tom Cruise's piano-playing friend in Eyes Wide Shut, shows us a lot but suggests even more as he finesses a long domestic drama that could have grown unwieldy.

In typical fashion, Miramax is throwing movie after movie on the holiday calendar to find a few that will stick with those who determine the year's best movies. Bedroom has plenty of adhesive.