When I first saw the previews for The Door in the Floor, I remember classifying it as one of those seriously depressing and pretentious human dramas. As it turns out, while the heart of the story is of a depressing nature, the movie also contains a humor that prevents it from ever becoming too pretentious and with a cast that universally turn in great performances. So much for judging a movie by its trailer.

The movie takes place over one summer on Long Island where seventeen-year-old Eddie has come to work as the assistant to children's author Ted Cole (Bridges). Ted has recently separated from his wife Marion (Basinger) and they share a complicated living arrangement where by they each stay alternating nights in their home with their four-year-old daughter.

As Eddie quickly discovers, there is a cloud of death hanging over the family, as both Ted and Marion are fixated upon the death of their two teenage sons. Marion has become almost catatonic, listlessly drifting through her life and becoming literally catatonic if the death of her sons is mentioned. Ted is extremely eccentric and is having a string of affairs with women he lures into his studio under the pretense of sketching them.

Eddie's main job becomes chauffeuring Ted around since Ted lost his license from driving under the influence. During his free time, Eddie is soon developing an obsession with Marion. After she catches him masturbating while looking at a pair of her panties, they begin an affair. It's later revealed that Eddie bears a resemblance to one of the dead sons. Paging, Dr. Freud!

Over the course of the summer, all three of the main characters are changed. And while the movie is quite serious about the death of the Cole's children and about how it has altered their lives considerably, it also contains quite a few laughs. Ted's latest conquest, played by Mimi Rogers, is a mixture of humor and pathos, as are many of Ted's eccentricities.

A quirky movie, The Door in the Floor isn't easy to pigeonhole into one category or another, except to say whatever type of movie it is, it's a good one.

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The three characters in The Door in the Floor struck me by each of their very own selfishness. Most obvious and least sympathetic is Ted, who demeans women in his sketches. He hires Eddie not because he actually needs an assistant but because he knows he will act as surrogate son for him and most importantly his wife, Marion. Her selfishness is perhaps the most damning. She often ignores her daughter as she emotionally checks out of life. Her abandonment speaks volumes. Eddie is the most likable of the three. His youth excuses his self centered desires. He wants to work for Ted for what he can garner from his knowledge and experience as a writer. He wants to have sex with and lose his virginity to Marion even though she is married and detached from reality.

The Freudian sex that Marion has with Eddie is very interesting. Shortly before they have sex for the first time, Marion tells Eddie that she thinks one of her sons had sex but not the other before dying. Marion has sex with Eddie not because she is at all attracted to him, and not because sex will make her feel any better. She has sex with Eddie because it somehow makes her feel connected to her dead virgin son. In a very weird way, having sex with Eddie is an apology to her son for his life ending so soon.

Ted and Marion are the best estranged married movie couple since O'Toole and Hepburn chewed up the screen in The Lion in Winter. Ted and Marion appear to no longer connect in anyway except that they have a history together. Even their daughter binds them not. However, they know each other better than anyone else. They each predict the other's actions to Eddie with exact precision. This is a couple that has a very strong bond constructed on familiarity, but they have each lost the capability to truly love anything.

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