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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Door in the Floor, The
Focus Features


7.5

based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 23 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexuality and graphic images, and language

Starring Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, Mimi Rogers, Bijou Phillips, Elle Fanning, and Jon Foster

Set in the beach community of East Hampton, New York, the film chronicles one pivotal summer in the lives of famous children's books author Ted Cole (Bridges) and his beautiful wife Marion (Basinger), exploring the complexities of love in its brightest, most mysterious, and darkest corners. (Focus Features)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Tod Williams John Irving (novel A Widow for One Year)
DIRECTED BY:	Tod Williams
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 14, 2004 Video: December 14, 2004 Theatrical: July 14, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	111 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The New York Times Dana Stevens

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 Joe Morgenstern

One of those rare and complex dramas that you can enter, not simply watch.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

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.

Variety David Rooney

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

You can't shut the door on this spellbinder. It gets into your head.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A stunningly well-acted drama for grown-ups.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

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.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

A surprisingly good film, not quite original but smart, careful and steadfast in its dedication to its characters.

Newsweek David Ansen

This hothouse tale of grief, sex and betrayal is told with a cool detachment that renders it commendably unsentimental--and slightly remote.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

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

USA Today Mike Clark

Jeff Bridges has enough demons in The Door in the Floor to jam a crowd scene, but the actor's sheer likability remains undiminished.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Bridges turns in another remarkable performance, and he's well-matched by Foster.

Village Voice Ed Park

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.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The film’s beauty is that, like any good novel, it refuses to sew up its meanings for the audience.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

By the end the story is more satisfying than you might expect.

Slate David Edelstein

Bridges has evolved into a miraculous actor: one who signals wildness through the intensity of his containment.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

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.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

When it sticks to the subject, the movie is sad and affecting.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

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.

TV Guide Ken Fox

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.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

This is a carefully conceived, thoughtfully orchestrated effort in taste and restraint that ultimately is too restrained and tasteful.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Bridges can't be a whole movie. But he's the main reason to watch.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

It's nearly impossible to tell whether Williams thought he was making a family tragedy or a sex farce.

Empire Dorian Lynskey

This better-than-the-book adaptation casts quite a spell.

Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo

By turns absorbing, unsettling and, for lack of a better word, icky.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

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.

The New Yorker David Denby

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.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Bridges redeems the clichéd role of spoiled artist-sot. He's flamboyantly entertaining, which is more than this otherwise dreary movie deserves.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

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."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Showcasing three individuals whose spiritual and physical journeys are both repellent and mundane, the film is just a long and pointless slog.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jeff M. gave it an8:
Moving and quirky. Jeff Bridges is probably the most underrated actor of his generation. Bassinger is probably my least favorite actress around, but her blank detachment worked well in this role.

Susan M. gave it a9:
The best movie I have seen this year. It has such a sad and moving story that really sticks with you. Bridges and Basinger can really act!

Craig W. gave it a10:
A must see for anybody who has read the John Irving book. One of the best book adaptions I have ever seen.

jake h. gave it a0:
Anyone who had a hand in making this piece of crap (including Elle Fanning's parents) should be shot.

Joe R gave it a3:
The movie has pretty people, good acting and summer resort scenery, but the themes of death, emotional paralysis, betrayal, cruelty,incest by proxy, child neglect and pompous Picasso-like sexual indulgence and sadism left me sick and searching for something to redeem any of these people.

mark m gave it a1:
A pig of a movie. It snuffles about in the undergrowth as if no life existed on any higher level.

charles b gave it a0:
Stuck in the doldrums - this dreary, dank, depressing movie waits- in vain- for a breath of fresh air to provide some headway. San Francisco Chronicle nailed it.

Door in the Floor, The Focus Features

Door in the Floor, The
Focus Features