The Door in the Floor

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The Door in the Floor ★★★½ 2004 (R)

This compelling feature gets an extra half-bone for Jeff Bridges' standout performance. He's dissolute but celebrated children's author/illustrator Ted Cole (the title refers to one of his books), who is spending the summer of 1958 in a Hamptons beach house with his inconsolable wife Marion (Basinger) and their precocious four-year-old daughter, Ruth (Fanning). Marion has not recovered from the car crash that killed the couple's two teenaged sons. Ted decides on a trial separation, which means he can continue an affair with wealthy Evelyn (Rogers), and he hires 16-year-old Eddie (Foster) to keep an eye on Marion. Eddie does more than that when he develops an obsession for the lonely woman who begins a sexual relationship with him. Adapted from the first section of John Irving's 1998 novel “A Widow of One Year.” 111m/ C DVD . US Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, Jon Foster, Mimi Rogers, Elle Fanning, Bijou Philips, Louis Arcella; D: Tod Williams; W: Tod Williams; C: Terry Stacey; M: Marcelo Zarvos.