The Door in the Floor

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More About

• Kip Williams
• Marion
• Jeff Bridges
• Hampton
• The Door in the Floor

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Impeccably cast and realized, The Door in the Floor (2004) nails the pricey “simplicity” of Hampton beach living squarely. Writer-director Tod Williams adapts only the opening section of John Irving’s 1998 generation-spanning novel A Widow for One Year, and the approach—plus some other rearrangements—works surprisingly well. Central to Door is Jeff Bridges’ ribald, unsparing portrait of Ted Cole, who’s tender, damaged, ruthless, a seducer and a clown. He and his melancholy wife, Marion (Kim Basinger), have just separated some five years after their two teenage sons died in a car accident. Enter 16-year old Eddie (Jon Foster), who’ll assist author-illustrator Ted for the summer. As it turns out, Marion needs him more. Williams isn’t simply charting the outcome of an affair—or two affairs—nor even the foundering of a once-glittering marriage; he’s defining the qualities that allow some people to rise above tragedy and some to collapse. And by the film’s end, we’ve seen enough, at close range, to pick the survivors. (R) SHEILA BENSON
Thu., April 28, 7:30 p.m.; Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Starts: April 28. Continues through June 2, 2011