Review of In a Bedroom (2012) by Joseph S — 07 Jul 2008

This movie proved to me a strange truth in film and maybe all art, how you can get everything right, connect all the dots, and still fail miserably. Beware of any film which makes anything as ambigious as it's "atmosphere" as one of it's selling points(it's a clever way to seem intelligent without actually saying anything, which suits this film to a T.).

Grief, jealously, class, revenge, all add up to nothing much. It's emotionally complex and finely performed, but the feeling this left me with was a very cynical and confident "so what?". I learned nothing, gained nothing, and felt little. This movie felt like a drama in love with itself, it's realism, and "honesty", enough so to short change the audience on any real story. It's as emotionally bombastic as Micheal Bay is visually, and yet still manages to say and show, us nothing new or interesting.

The film lightly touches on many themes but resists making any authoritative stamp on any of them, and the metaphor of the "bedroom" and the crabs, is simplistic and misanthropic. But even that didn't really bother me, what got to me was the "hype" to dissapointment ratio, which tipped pretty quickly after the son dies, and everything becomes Extremely predictable, like a slow middle class "Death Wish".

At the time this came out it was swimming in oceans of warm praise, and excited to see it watched it with my mom, the best part was at the end, when we kinda connected in both realizing it sucked.

This movie doesnt really deserve a one, but that's what I'm going to give it, because it helps with the atmosphere I'm trying to create with this review.