The Door in the Floor

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The Door in the Floor

The Door in the Floor film poster
Directed by Tod Williams
Produced by Anne Carey, Michael Corrente, Ted Hope
Written by Novel:
John Irving
Screenplay:
Tod Williams
Starring Jeff Bridges
Kim Basinger
Jon Foster
Elle Fanning
Distributed by Focus Features
Release date(s) June 18, 2004
Running time 111 minutes
Language English
IMDb profile

The Door in the Floor is a 2004 film directed by Tod Williams. It is adapted from one section of John Irving's best-selling novel A Widow for One Year.

[edit] Plot

The movie is set in the 2000s in the exclusive beach community of East Hampton, New York, where famous children's book author Ted Cole (played by Jeff Bridges), his wife Marion (Kim Basinger) and their young daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning) live. Years ago their two teenage sons died in a car accident. Particularly traumatic for Marion was discovering her son's leg, cut off, lying on the floor of the car after the accident. They made a new start by having Ruth, but Marion is still despondent, and Ted makes love with other women. Many photographs of the two dead boys are on the walls.

Ted and Marion separate temporarily, each alternatively living in the main and a second house. Ted hires the young man Eddie O'Hare (Jon Foster), to work as his summer assistant and driver: Ted has had his driving license revoked for drunk driving. As Ted later explains to Eddie, he is also hired to cheer up Marion, since he looks like one of their dead sons. Eddie is the couple's unwitting yet willing pawn. Eddie and Marion have an affair, which starts after Marion walks in while Eddie is masturbating with Marion's underwear. The affair does not bother Ted. However, when Ruth walks into the room where Eddie and Marion are making love, Ted, after hearing about this, is upset that Marion did not prevent that from happening. Ted tells Eddie that in a possible future custody battle about Ruth, Eddie may have to testify about this incident, illustrating her being less suitable to have Ruth. Ted is also a drawing artist, and uses Evelyn Vaughn (Mimi Rogers) as nude model. In a slapstick scene Evelyn tries to kill Ted. Later Marion leaves Ted, but does not want custody of Ruth, which Ted finds amazing. Marion takes all photographs and negatives of the two dead boys with her. Fortunately for Ted and Ruth, they still have one, that happened to be in the photo shop for repair of the frame. Over the course of the film, Eddie develops from shy and adoring Ted, to the point where he, as instructed by Marion, punches Ted in the face. The film ends ambiguously. The final scene features Ted in his squash court finally entering the door in the floor, at which point the movie ends.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The works of John Irving