The Door in the Floor

Product Description

Four-time Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges and Academy Award winner Kim Basinger give stellar performances in this critically acclaimed film, adapted from the #1 best-selling novel, A Widow for One Year, by Academy Award winner John Irving. The Door in the Floor chronicles one pivotal summer in the lives of famous children s book author Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) and his beautiful wife, Marion (Kim Basinger). It is a provocative story about one couple s emotional journey into a world of daring sensuality and stunning honesty.

BONUS MATERIALS :

Frame on the Wall: The Making of The Door in the Floor

Novel to Screen: John Irving

Anatomy of a Scene

Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Tod Williams, Director of Photography

Terry Stacey, Editor Alfonso Goncalves, Composer Marcelo Zarvos and Costume

Designer Eric Daman

System Requirements:

Running Time 111 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

Jeff Bridges demonstrates once again that he is one of the finest actors in film. Ted Cole (Bridges, Seabiscuit, The Big Lebowski), a successful writer/illustrator of children's books, invites a young student named Eddie (Jon Foster) to be his assistant for a summer. Eddie doesn't realize he's being drawn into the middle of a dissolving marriage until Ted's wife Marion (Kim Basinger, L. A. Confidential) invites him into an affair--which Ted both condones and resents. Slowly, Eddie comes to understand the secrets that are tearing the marriage apart. Bridges never shows off; everything he does seems simple, natural, almost unavoidable, but it's also utterly watchable. Whether you like the movie will depend on whether you like John Irving (The Door in the Floor is based on part of his novel A Widow for One Year), but Bridges's performance is undeniable. Also featuring Mimi Rogers (The Rapture). --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Explores the raw pain of marital dysfunction.......2007-07-22

I remember how searing and raw this film was when I first watched it. Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges do a remarkable job of showing how a happily married couple can fall prey to blame, guilt, shame, drinking, infidelity and more after a tragedy befalls them. Having another child does not make the situation better, either. Everyone suffers in the end. Still, it has bits of humor and unpredictability that make you want to keep watching. Little Elle Fanning, who turned five during the filming, possesses a lot of gravity and sadness for one so young. She is never annoying the way most child actors are. Also watch for Mimi Rogers as the woman Bridges has an affair with, at least for a while. Bridges also provided the haunting drawings used as part of the storyline.

Summer of '42 for the 21st century.......2007-05-07

Deft performances from Basinger and Bridges elevate this low key coming -of- age drama with resonances of poignancy and subtlety.
This is satisfying and beautifully conceived within the parameters of the scenario.
Thoroughly recommended and will withstand repeat viewing.

Never mind Elle Fanning, here's an 'ell of a panning.......2007-05-06

Not for a moment did I buy this young kid's obsession with a children's author. Really likely. Nor did I buy into his hots for a fifty something women. The babysitter, sure (Bijou Phillips, good but unheralded in an admitedly small part.) But someone's mum? He might think, "not bad", but he'd be having a Barclay's over the help. And I didn't buy him getting caught having a Barclay's either. If you were going to do something that risky with someone's underwear, you wouldn't risk it with someone in the house. And if you did, at that the very least you'd find out where they were in the house and be acutely aware of the slightest creak which an old house would have plenty of. Basinger appears like a ghost. Nope.

In the special features, John Irving appears unconcerned about the impact of the couple on the young student because he says the young always get over things quickly and move on. This is palpable nonsense. Getting used by selfish and corrupt people at a young age can do lasting and heart felt damage. This sneeking admiration of the repulsive couple and the suggestion that the student is somehow matured and enlightened by the experience, makes Floor in the Door a hard sell. And I haven't exactly been buying up to this point. Irving seems to have a continual need to push the envelope with this incest stuff. Maybe he just wants to be European.

On the plus side, if you're looking for different then this is it, I guess.

Beautiful Movie...........2007-01-03

I had never heard of this movie until recently. I seen it at the local movie rental and seen that Ebert gave it a recommendation. I'm so glad I rented it. It was a beautiful movie, that really makes you feel human. I know that sounds funny, but it does. In a world of so much superficiality, it makes you feel human. Your flaws are no bigger than any one elses. We all take different paths in life and we all make our own mistakes. Jeff Bridges gave a wonderful performance. I also thought Fanning was good, much better than her sister. Two big thumbs up!

Excellent movie.......2007-01-03

This is a great movie on so many levels. It is a glimpse at the frailty of humanity. It's funny, some of the reviewers who were disgusted by this movie, seem to think we humans are always perfect (or should always be perfect). Well sorry to burst their bubble, we aren't. And there was also quite a few reviews that complained about the nudity. There was no gratuitous nudity. In other words, there was no nudity just for the sake of nudity. The nudity in the movie had a purpose and needed to be in the movie. So you can ignore the reviews from the moral superiorist who think they own the world and should censor movies to their standards. This is an art house movie with a lot of meaning lurking under the surface. It's not a movie that will appeal to the average movie goer because the average movie goer isn't sophisticated enough to understand a movie like this. I don't say that to be insulting. My theory is, if the shoe fits, so be it. This movie will appeal to a small audience that understands and appreciates deep conflicted works of art. And that's what I consider this. Open the door in the floor and you will be pleasantly surprised!

The Door in the Floor/Swimming Pool Value Pack

Average customer rating:

Swimming Pool
mystery stuff
Was it a dream? Is this reality? If I don't know, then I don't care.
Intellectual but also alive
Mostly a Waste of Time

The Door in the Floor/Swimming Pool Value Pack
Starring: Charlotte Rampling , Ludivine Sagnier , Charles Dance , Jean-Marie Lamour , and Marc Fayolle
Director: François Ozon , and Tod Williams
Manufacturer: Universal Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0007R4TSU
Release Date: 2005-04-26

Amazon.com

In terms of alluring female nudity, Swimming Pool shows a lot, but it's what remains concealed that gives this erotic thriller a potent, voyeuristic charge. With his Hitchcockian handling of secrets and lies, prolific French director François Ozon reunites with his Under the Sand star, Charlotte Rampling, to tell a seductive tale of murder and complicity, beginning when British mystery novelist Sarah Morton (Rampling) seeks peace and relaxation at her publisher's French villa, only to find his brash, sexually liberated daughter Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) arriving shortly thereafter to disrupt her solitary reverie. What begins as mutual annoyance turns into something more sinister and duplicitous, alternating between Julie's predatory sex with men and Sarah's observant, perhaps jealous fascination. These two women, generations apart, share in Ozon's delicate dance of trust, curiosity, and gradual understanding, until a twist ending that forces you to reevaluate everything you've seen. Only then will the mysteries of Swimming Pool be fully and tantalizingly revealed. (Note: The unrated version contains full-frontal nudity that's been edited from the rated version. In both versions, the overall plot is not affected.) --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Swimming Pool.......2007-08-08

Set upon a simple storyline, Charlotte Rampling's character leaves London for a little R & R in the country. She soon encounters the daughter of her boss, where their generational differences quickly show, the libertine young frenchwoman and the staid, disapproving, middle-class englishwoman. Surely, the Sloane Ranger set wouldn't have any trouble with promiscuity while vacationing in the south of France? I offhand consciously compare her stern, stoic, facial expressions to Glenn Close's lawyer on the new FX series, 'Damages'. Those features which reveal the voracious-rapacious appetites that are common among some women, lawyer or not. I.e., the deep chasm between what is said and what is done.

mystery stuff.......2007-07-25

I kept wondering why so many scenes shown near a swimming pool were taking place... and then I hit the "View Information" button on the TV remote and found out the movie is actually called Swimming Pool! haha

It's a pretty good mystery movie. Some of the scenes were rather shocking, and probably inappropriate to share in this review. The mystery story was slow-building, but eventually some good plot twists took place and left me feeling satisfied. NOT a movie you want your kids to see because of some nudity scenes, but for adults, it's worth watching.

Was it a dream? Is this reality? If I don't know, then I don't care........2007-07-05

Ultimately this is a stinker. It started out great and then the "did that really happen?", "which part is real?" stuff started...and I stopped caring. Skip it; you're not missing much.

Intellectual but also alive.......2007-06-20

A truly interesting, beautiful, and thought-provoking film, about desire, revenge, and sisterhood (motherhood? daughterhood?), and the sources of art. The men have no chance in this movie, which turns out to be a good thing; it's not a film about romance, despite the fact that both female protagonists have a soft, sentimental spot for a good "harlequin." If it's a film about sex (and there is plenty of steamy sex in the film), it's about sex as a proxy for something harder and more elemental: the need to be recognized and affirmed. Despite being an intellectual movie, it's also eminently watchable, even gripping. A careful, even brilliant performance on all levels.

Mostly a Waste of Time.......2007-03-07

The movie starts off very slowly, gathers a bit of steam, and then takes a plot turn that is totally inconsistent with the personalities of the two main characters, uptight writer Sarah and free spirit Julie.

I'd quote one of Sarah's lines as she "assists" Julie with a task that they undertake, but it would be too much of a spoiler... in any case, once that line was spoken, I lost all respect for the plot.

Some of the scenery in the movie is pleasing to the eye. For that, I'll give the movie two stars, rather than the one star it would have otherwise deserved.

In any case -- don't waste your time watching "Swimming Pool." You'll drown in the stupidity.

Average customer rating:

The Door in the Floor / Swimming Pool Value Pack
Starring: Elle Fanning , Jeff Bridges , Kim Basinger , Jon Foster , and Larry Pine
Director: Tod Williams , and François Ozon
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000788052
Release Date: 2005-04-26

DVD:

DVD

DVD