In The Bedroom

In a small Maine fishing village, a summer romance between a college student (Nick Stahl) and an older woman (Marisa Tomei) takes a dangerous turn when her estranged husband (William Mapother) wants to reconcile. Adapted from Andre Dubus’ story Killings, the film is seen through the eyes of the young man’s parents (Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson)—she tense and disapproving, he wary but mildly envious. Director Todd Field’s fine direction gives the dimensions of a waking nightmare, and the film is so intensely low-key that violence, when it comes, is shocking and terrible. Spacek and Wilkinson are brilliant.