Review of In a Bedroom (2012) by Maxwell L — 09 Jan 2008

I seem to recall this film coming out around the same time as American Beauty, and not too many people batted a second eye at it. Truthfully, this is a far better film than American Beauty. I still don't understand the fascination with Mendes' work. It's like comparing Big Fish to The Barbarian Invasions. Both Mendes' and Field's work concerns a dark family plot, but where Mendes handles his with hallucination and overdramatic monologue, Field is more concerned about sheer emotional devastation, and it works on so many more levels. There are deaths in each of these films, and whereas one seems to act as a last-ditch effort for a closer, the better one utilizes death as a worthy catalyst, and where the real movie begins.

This is the best family drama ever made, bar none.