In The Bedroom

An absolutely brilliant, superb film from 2001. It is firmly in my Top Ten of the best dramatic films of all-time. When a terrific screenplay, a solid directorial performance and class A acting from all the actors combine, you have a truly special film. This was an independent sleeper hit that, by word of mouth, gathered steam through the awards season. That’s how I first heard about the film. Both Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek are brilliant. It is Wilkinson’s finest performance and it rivals Spacek’s performance in Coal Miner’s Daughter as her greatest role. This was my introduction to Tom Wilkinson and he has since become one of my favourite actors. The entire cast from top to bottom gives deep, raw, multi-layered performances.

I’ve said this many times before and I’ll say this many times again: Sissy Spacek deserved to win the Oscar for Best Actress. It was gut wrenching when she didn’t because you became so involved in her performance that anything less than an industry pat on the back was pure treachery. Was she robbed? No. (See The Manchurian Candidate post). I’ve seen Halle Berry’s performance in Monster’s Ball. Was she good? Of course. Was it an over-the-top performance (that the Academy salivates over) given by the pretty, young actress du jour? Yes and yes. Was it also a political choice? Yes, but that deserves to be elaborated on in a longer, exploratory post on the politics behind Oscar’s choices. I preferred Spacek’s performance (for the reasons I outlined in my Being There post). To see her not win, after she had won almost every other acting award that season, justifying her outwardly quiet, inwardly raging performance, was like watching a tire quickly deflate. I haven’t yet gotten over that. She is so good…