---
title: "In the Bedroom"
year: 2001
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/in-the-bedroom"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 82
critics_reviews: 16
published: "2026-09-20T07:11:26.232409+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-20T07:11:26.766296+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# In the Bedroom (2001)

Directed by Todd Field · 2h 11m · MPA R · Drama, Thriller

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 82 from 16 reviews

*In a sentence:* A lobster town where everyone keeps their voice down, right up until they don’t

> Todd Field’s first film, about a Maine couple whose summer is broken by violence, is patient, exact and acted by Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek with hardly a raised voice. The last half hour turns into a different film, and not quite as good a one.

## Synopsis

Camden, on the Maine coast, in summer. Frank Fowler (Nick Stahl) is home from college, hauling lobster traps for the season and putting off a decision about graduate school. He has fallen in with Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei), a few years older, with two small sons and a husband, Richard (William Mapother), from whom she is separated but not yet divorced. Richard’s family owns the fish plant, and Richard does not accept that the marriage is over. Frank’s parents watch from the edges: Matt (Tom Wilkinson), the town doctor, who likes Natalie and rather admires his son’s luck, and Ruth (Sissy Spacek), who runs the school choir and thinks Frank is spending his future on somebody else’s family. Barbecues, a poker night, Richard turning up where he is not wanted. Then the summer ends, abruptly.

## Review

Todd Field’s first film as director is adapted, with Robert Festinger, from Andre Dubus’s short story *Killings*, and it tells you what it is about in a scene it then refuses to point at again. Matt Fowler (Tom Wilkinson), a doctor in a lobster town on the Maine coast, is showing one of his son’s girlfriend’s small boys how a trap works. The compartment at the back, he says, is called the bedroom, and if two lobsters end up in there together they will fight. Field puts that early, lets it go, and spends 131 minutes on the fight.

We recommend it, warmly, with one caveat about its last half hour that we will come to. The first act is a summer: Frank (Nick Stahl) hauling traps before he decides about graduate school, Natalie (Marisa Tomei) and her boys at the Fowlers’ barbecue, Ruth (Sissy Spacek) rehearsing her school choir, poker with Willis (William Wise) while Katie (Celia Weston) talks in the next room. Antonio Calvache shoots it in level coastal daylight from a fixed camera, wide enough that people are small in their rooms, and Frank Reynolds cuts slowly, so that by the time anything happens we know the house.

Natalie’s husband Richard (William Mapother), from whom she is separated but not divorced, keeps turning up. His family owns the fish plant, and Mapother plays him as a man who honestly believes he is the injured party, which is more alarming than a villain would be. What happens at the end of the first act we will not describe, though the tagline gives fair warning. Field stages it as an interruption rather than a set piece. Then the film he actually wanted to make begins, and it belongs to Matt and Ruth.

They grieve in different rooms. Ruth sits in front of the television with a cigarette, the volume low. Matt goes back to his patients, does the crossword, keeps the lawn cut, and finds reasons to be out of the house. Melissa Economy dresses Ruth in the beige cardigans of a woman who has decided not to be looked at, and Thomas Newman’s score stays away for such long stretches that when a few piano notes finally arrive they sound like somebody knocking. Wilkinson and Spacek barely raise their voices for the better part of an hour.

The kitchen argument that ends the quiet is the scene we have not been able to shake. Each of them says the thing about the other that has been true all along and that neither would have said while Frank was in the house, and it is over in a few minutes, with a slap and a door. We sat quite still. We did not want to look at the person next to us. Field and Festinger write it with an accuracy about long marriages we did not expect from a first film, and Spacek plays it with her jaw, Wilkinson with his hands.

Then comes the turn. The last half hour moves toward something closer to a thriller, and most critics either forgive it or admire it. We believed every second of the grief and rather less of what the grief leads to. Field films the new material with the same stillness as the old, which is the right instinct, and Wilkinson is as good in it as anywhere, but the plot asks these people to do things the first ninety minutes have taught us they would not, and it leans on chance in a way the earlier film never does. Some critics found the whole thing slow. We did not; the length never troubled us.

Marisa Tomei deserves more than the tagline gives her. The older woman of the poster is a tired mother of two who likes a kind young man and knows exactly what the town thinks, and Tomei plays her without a trace of temptress. Karen Allen turns up as Marla Keyes and does more with a handful of scenes than the writing asks of her.

Watch it with somebody you have been with for a long time, and do not discuss it until morning. Neither of you will want to.

*Fi1m score 84, published 20 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are almost entirely favourable. Most critics call Todd Field’s directing debut unusually assured, praising the patience with which it builds an ordinary New England household before tragedy arrives and its refusal of melodrama once it has. Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek are singled out repeatedly for performances built on repression and choked-back words; Marisa Tomei is mentioned nearly as often. Several critics credit Field’s talent for stillness with making the violence feel as shocking as it would in life.

The reservations, such as they are, gather around the second half’s move into thriller territory. The Guardian finds the shift less plausible and the film slightly short of the sum of its parts, and Eye for Film, the lone mixed voice, finds it slow and too tasteful, with a final turn it does not believe. Otherwise the spread is narrow: even the cooler notices from Roger Ebert and Peter Bradshaw stay firmly positive.

### Reviews we read (16)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (90/100, inferred): Field’s impressive directing debut is an unadorned, unflinching film about fierce passions and grief, told with quiet sureness and exceptional acting that rings true. It rewards confidence in its story and performances that capture the private geography of love, grief, and obsession. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-nov-23-ca-7314-story.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Todd Field's assured debut for its subtle, intense handling of grief and resentment without melodrama, highlighting the sophisticated direction and standout performances by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson. The film is noted for its emotional architecture and shift into thriller territory while maintaining credibility. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/in-the-bedroom/)
- **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (NYT Critic’s Pick): This profoundly quiet drama about a New England couple coping with their son's murder cuts to the quick with its portrait of grief, rage, and revenge. The director understands that the essence of violence accumulates over time and shows in people's clenched faces and choked-back words. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/23/movies/film-review-when-grief-becomes-a-member-of-the-family.html)
- **Variety** (90/100, inferred): Field marks an accomplished directorial debut with a powerfully dramatic story of a couple's slowly evolving reaction to family tragedy, beautifully acted by a diverse ensemble. The film honors a mature attention span in its evocation of place and unstressed emotions before a shocking murder. [Read](https://variety.com/2001/film/awards/in-the-bedroom-3-1200466261/)
- **Empire**, Chris Hewitt (85/100, inferred): The review calls Field's debut a low-key but emotionally devastating examination of family, grief and vigilante justice that is superbly crafted. Wilkinson, Spacek and Tomei are singled out for magnificent performances alongside Field's sensitive direction. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/bedroom-review/)
- **Screen Daily** (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Todd Field's assured directorial debut as a meditative, multilayered drama that chronicles a New England family's response to sudden tragedy with meticulous detail and without sentimentality or melodrama. Strong ensemble performances, especially from Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek, are singled out for their delicacy. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/in-the-bedroom/405004.article)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (85/100, inferred): The critic lauds Field's directorial debut for its wrenching melodrama, patient deliberation, and psychological depth, crediting strong performances especially by Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek. It highlights the film's assured handling of family tensions and community rhythms leading to a powerful payoff. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/in-the-bedroom-1798192846)
- **The New Yorker**, David Denby (85/100, inferred): Field has a terrific talent for stillness and achieves a convincing picture of everyday normality that makes violence feel as shocking as in real life. The drama centers on the parents' elemental, increasingly ironic story with Sophoclean logic. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/11/26/angry-people)
- **IndieWire**, Indiewire (80/100, inferred): The review calls it Field's shattering debut, emphasizing its emotional intensity and assured storytelling about loss and its aftermath. It singles out the director's handling of the material as a major achievement. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/review-in-the-bedroom-fields-shattering-debut-80641/)
- **Time Out**, NB (80/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a supremely confident and controlled US indie that offers an immaculate family portrait before shifting into unpredictable emotional terrain. It singles out the restrained yet visceral depiction of grief and the healing process, particularly the performances by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/in-the-bedroom)
- **Total Film** (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as an intimate melodrama of rare conviction that holds up a dark mirror to grief, with wrenching results superbly played by the cast. Field's lean direction and the ensemble's performances are highlighted as making the emotional fallout feel raw and truthful. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/in-the-bedroom-review/)
- **The Independent**, Jonathan Romney (75/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a serious, spare American tragedy about how grief divides rather than unites a family in small-town Maine. Field is praised for his patient, elliptical direction and strong casting of Wilkinson and Spacek in roles of emotional repression. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/in-the-bedroom-15-9185570.html)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): The film slowly reveals its true subject as the marriage of Matt and Ruth, showing how hurt and sadness turn to anger and blame after a shocking event. It features exceptionally true performances, especially by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson, that capture hidden struggles beneath civilized surfaces. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/in-the-bedroom-2001)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The film is an intelligent, calmly-paced drama showcasing strong performances, particularly from Wilkinson, Spacek and Tomei, and effectively evokes the setting and grief of the parents. It falls slightly short of the sum of its parts due to an uncomfortable shift into thriller territory that feels less plausible. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/jan/25/1)
- **Collider**, Thomas Butt (90/100, inferred): The piece hails Todd Field's assured 2001 debut as a precise, intimate domestic drama about family tragedy and grief that announced him as a major talent. It singles out the career-best ensemble performances, especially from Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei, under Field's neutral, Kubrick-inspired direction. [Read](https://collider.com/in-the-bedroom-todd-field-marisa-tomei-sissy-spacek/)
- **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (55/100, inferred): The film is a mood piece that looks ravishing but is desperately slow and tasteful to a fault. Strong performances and delicate direction are praised, though the plot's final turn strains credibility. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/in-the-bedroom-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)

## Details

- **Director:** Todd Field
- **Director:** Todd Field
- **Screenplay:** Todd Field, Robert Festinger
- **Cinematography:** Antonio Calvache
- **Editor:** Frank Reynolds
- **Music:** Thomas Newman
- **Costume design:** Melissa Economy
- **Producer:** Todd Field, Ross Katz, Graham Leader
- **Cast:** Tom Wilkinson as Matt Fowler; Sissy Spacek as Ruth Fowler; Nick Stahl as Frank Fowler; Marisa Tomei as Natalie Strout; William Mapother as Richard Strout; William Wise as Willis Grinnel; Celia Weston as Katie Grinnel; Karen Allen as Marla Keyes
- **Runtime:** 2h 11m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 23 November 2001
- **Genres:** Drama, Thriller
- **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2001); [Golden Globe Best Drama winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-drama.md) (Nominee, 2001)
- **Budget:** $2 million
- **Box office:** $45 million

## Where to watch in the US

Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check.

Also available in: AU, BR, CL, CO, MX, NZ. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2002: Best Actor (nominated); Best Actress (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated)
- Sundance Special Jury Prize for Acting 2001: Sundance Special Jury Prize for Acting (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Son* (2002): The Dardennes on a father and the boy who took his; even quieter, even harder.
- *Ordinary People* (1980), Fi1m 81: Another family that cannot say the thing, in a colder house with better lighting. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ordinary-people.md)
- *The Sweet Hereafter* (1997), Fi1m 88: Egoyan’s snowbound town after a loss; grief and a lawsuit, both handled gently. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-sweet-hereafter.md)
- *Manchester by the Sea* (2016), Fi1m 89: Another New England man who cannot forgive himself, played by Casey Affleck at his stillest. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/manchester-by-the-sea.md)
- *Mystic River* (2003), Fi1m 82: Eastwood’s Boston tragedy about what bereaved men do; louder than Field, and knows it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mystic-river.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/in-the-bedroom