| 100 |
The New York Times
Surely the best movie yet made from Mr. Irving's fiction. It may even belong in the rarefied company of movies that are better than the books on which they are based.
|
| 100 |
Wall Street Journal
One of those rare and complex dramas that you can enter, not simply watch.
|
| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
Bridges turns a two-dimensional image into a presence so vital, so filled with breath and blood, that you uneasily fall in love with his character and abandon all thought of the artifice that's brought it to life.
|
| 90 |
The Hollywood Reporter
The production is graced by bold performances, lyrical visuals and, most notably, Irving's own words, which have made the transition quite intact thanks to a faithful but still filmic adaptation by writer-director Tod Williams.
|
| 90 |
Variety
A thoughtful, melancholy story of love, loss, pain, betrayal and the lingering after-effects of tragedy, The Door in the Floor is an intelligent, impeccably acted, unsentimental drama.
|
| 88 |
Rolling Stone
You can't shut the door on this spellbinder. It gets into your head.
|
| 88 |
Boston Globe
A stunningly well-acted drama for grown-ups.
|
| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
Everything in the movie -- family demons, May-December sex, the lessons of writing -- ties together with pinpoint precision. That's a pleasure, to be sure, and a limitation, too.
|
| 80 |
Dallas Observer
Melissa Levine
A surprisingly good film, not quite original but smart, careful and steadfast in its dedication to its characters.
|
| 80 |
Newsweek
This hothouse tale of grief, sex and betrayal is told with a cool detachment that renders it commendably unsentimental--and slightly remote.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Bridges is fun to watch, Fanning emerges as Hollywood's best 6-year-old actress, and Rogers's talents are wasted. A likable drama within its limitations.
|
| 75 |
Premiere
There are more than a couple of moments in this film, adapted by writer-director Tod Williams from a big swatch of Irving’s multigenerational quilt "A Widow for One Year," that get Irving’s sense of grotesque tragedy and tragic grotesquerie just right
|
| 75 |
USA Today
Jeff Bridges has enough demons in The Door in the Floor to jam a crowd scene, but the actor's sheer likability remains undiminished.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Williams handles the main line of the story, the war between Ted and Marion, clearly and strongly; you may not always hurt the one you love, but you certainly know how to.
|
| 75 |
ReelViews
Well-made, and it held my attention throughout, but this is one of those motion pictures where it's easier to admire than like the final result.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It works as a fascinating and often very funny character study/satire of a famous author, though it loses interest the harder it tries to be profound and falls apart completely toward the end.
|
| 70 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Bridges turns in another remarkable performance, and he's well-matched by Foster.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Eliminates much of its source's plot, focusing on the book's first third. The result is a crisply shot chamber piece for husband, wife, and boy.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
The film’s beauty is that, like any good novel, it refuses to sew up its meanings for the audience.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
By the end the story is more satisfying than you might expect.
|
| 70 |
Slate
Bridges has evolved into a miraculous actor: one who signals wildness through the intensity of his containment.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
To do no disservice to the impressive work of Bridges' co-stars, anytime his ragged writer, in flowing caftans and floppy hats, is on screen, it's impossible to take in anything else, so commanding is his presence.
|
| 63 |
Baltimore Sun
When it sticks to the subject, the movie is sad and affecting.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
That Williams occasionally comes close to the author's layered spirit is a tribute to his passion. But the film fails on a number of levels. First, it is what it is: the prologue to a story that covers four(!) decades.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
A handsome-looking movie that's full of the muted greens, browns and grays of the tony Hamptons, director Williams' tale never quite finds its footing.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
Getting Irving's characteristic blend of quirky comedy and sorrow just right on screen has always been tricky, and writer-director Tod Williams' best efforts aren't enough to make the mix gel.
|
| 60 |
Washington Post
This is a carefully conceived, thoughtfully orchestrated effort in taste and restraint that ultimately is too restrained and tasteful.
|
| 60 |
Washington Post
Bridges can't be a whole movie. But he's the main reason to watch.
|
| 60 |
Salon.com
It's nearly impossible to tell whether Williams thought he was making a family tragedy or a sex farce.
|
| 60 |
Empire
Dorian Lynskey
This better-than-the-book adaptation casts quite a spell.
|
| 58 |
Portland Oregonian
Karen Karbo
By turns absorbing, unsettling and, for lack of a better word, icky.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
The Door in the Floor feels more about a situation than actual people. It's sensitively rendered, filled with those necessary evocative details, and it never rings true.
|
| 50 |
The New Yorker
For all its handsomeness and its occasional moments of piercing intelligence, it's a fundamentally depressing piece of work--not because it deals with tragic events and memories but because the characters seem hapless and even stupid, and the writer-director can't, or won't, take control.
|
| 50 |
New York Magazine
Bridges redeems the clichéd role of spoiled artist-sot. He's flamboyantly entertaining, which is more than this otherwise dreary movie deserves.
|
| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Single-handedly, Bridges gives the film what it otherwise lacks -- energy and emotion invested in this damaged man, naked beneath his ballooning caftan, at once sadly ridiculous and ridiculously sad.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
Rogers gives a brave performance, but there isn't much chemistry between Bridges and Basinger, who were teamed to better effect in 1987's "Nadine."
|
| 38 |
Miami Herald
Despite the actors' admirable efforts, everyone in The Door in the Floor is too affected, too fancifully written, to come off as anything other than conceits.
|
| 25 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Showcasing three individuals whose spiritual and physical journeys are both repellent and mundane, the film is just a long and pointless slog.
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