The Door in the Floor (2004)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Ted Cole	Jeff Bridges	½
Marion Cole	Kim Basinger
Eddie O'Hare	Jon Foster
Ruth Cole	Elle Fanning
Alice	Bijou Phillips	½
Evelyn Vaughn	Mimi Rogers	½

Review

Dysfunctional relationships and unconventional sex are familiar topics throughout John Irving's authorship. The latest adaptation of his books, Tod Williams' The Door in the Floor, largely follows the path laid out by George Roy Hill in The World According to Garp and has some of the same fascination: witty observations and studies of characters with charm and peculiarity, but who are miserably inapt when it comes to communication and dealing with everyday life. Jeff Bridges gives a useful performance as Ted Cole (the macho version of Garp, if you like), but the material, as adapted by Tod Williams hasn't got the necessary force, and his direction is largely directionless. Scenes that seem interesting from an isolated point of view pass across the screen as a liquid, irrelevant bulk. Even potentially edgy scenes like the ones between Basinger and Foster seem almost trivial. Jon Foster's unexpressive acting must take quite a bit of the blame. Rarely has a pivotal coming-of-age character, who as customary has so many potentially potent scenes to develop in, been acted or presented in a more unessential manner. As the primal protagonist, you'd expect Williams to use him to underline the film's moods and emotions, but these characters are too flat and uninspired to elevate this film into something truly interesting.