In The BedroomMovie Reviews

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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 86 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 OK for kids 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    The uncoagulated anguish of parents mourning the death of a child has rarely been more powerfully depicted than in the collected vignettes of grief, rage, and retribution that make up the riveting domestic drama In the Bedroom. Read full review

  • 100
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    The kind of movie they don't make any more -- a seriously beautiful, deliberately paced drama that meanders for a while at the pace of a summer romance, then explodes with phenomenal force. Read full review

  • 100
    San Francisco Chronicle | Edward Guthmann

    A lot of actors are labeled "brave" for taking on difficult scripts like this, but Spacek is the real thing: an artist first, without vanity, and a movie star almost by default. Read full review

  • 100
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    With performances that will raise the hairs on the back of your head, it's a film that knows the private geography of love, grief and obsession. Read full review

  • 100
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    When a film as profoundly quiet as In the Bedroom comes along, it feels almost miraculous, as if a shimmering piece of art had slipped below the radar and through the minefield of commerce. Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    There are scenes as true as movies can make them, and even when the story develops thriller elements, they are redeemed, because the movie isn't about what happens, but about why. Read full review

  • 90
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    An uncommonly good movie - a thriller that transcends thrills to become a heartfelt and heart-stopping personal drama. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    Bedroom succeeds with performances that get some of their power from imaginative casting. Read full review

  • 80
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    Beautifully acted by a diverse ensemble, this Good Machine production is carefully crafted and deliberately paced. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    Short of good, better than awful, it opens brilliantly, then just goes on, toward self-negating absurdity. Read full review

View more reviews for In The Bedroom on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 16+ Tragic masterwork is too intense for many teens.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this complex and troubling film will be too intense for many teens. The movie's few violent scenes are graphic and wrenching. Family communication is minimal and searing. The film depicts domestic violence and implies, while not actually showing, that children witness the abuse. The characters' practically palpable grief will be too much for some young viewers, particularly those who may have lost a close relative or friend.
  • Families can talk about the intersection of family, love and violence. Does the movie condone or condemn violence, or both? Families can also discuss the breakdown and seeming failure of family communication. Another interesting discussion topic would be exploring how the characters' occupational fields (medicine, music instruction, architecture, canning industry) illuminate or contradict their personalities.
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Characters resort to violence as revenge. Family members use extremely abusive and cruel language as main means of communication. A young college boy is involved with an older, separated-but-still-married mother of two children.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Most violence occurs off-screen, although the resulting wounds can be explicit, including, most graphically, a close-up of a face after it is shot.
  • sex false3 Sex: No visible encounters, but off-screen sexual activity clearly implied.
  • language false3 Language: Strong language in several scenes.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Sissy Spacek's character smokes constantly. Some references to possibility of alcoholism.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

In The Bedroom Movie Ratings + Reviews

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So-so 318 fan reviews

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