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# ‘Door in the Floor’ will make you laugh
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/door-in-the-floor-will-make-you-laugh/
- Published: 2004-07-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:44:20.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger and newcomer Jon Foster make great acting look easy in this wistful adaptation of the John Irving tome, “A Widow for One Year.” Marrying the whimsy of “The World According To Garp” to the profundity of “The Cider House Rules,” writer-director Tod Williams has fashioned an amply-layered study of relationships and how they form and come apart. This is a film, to borrow an old chestnut, that will make you laugh, and make you cry. Bridges, as a philandering, spiritually bleary New England author named Ted Cole is stupendous, and his co-stars follow suit. Basinger, at 51, remains one of Hollywood’s most stunning leading ladies, and her graceful portrayal of an unhappily married woman broken by the death of her teenaged sons is the stuff Oscar nominations are made of. Foster, last seen as a gas station attendant in “Terminator 3,” simply refuses to be outshined by the marquee names with whom he shares the screen. As Eddie, a writer’s assistant who moves in with the Coles and winds up in bed with the missus, he serves as the movie’s conscience. His coming-of-age scenes with Basinger, reminiscent of “Summer of ’42,” are both titillating and haunting. It’s as clear to us as it is to them that things will end badly, yet there’s something so powerful about their union that the ensuing anguish seems worth it. Mimi Rogers and six-year-old Elle Fanning (Dakota’s younger sister) are stellar in prominent supporting roles. (Rated R for strong sexuality and graphic images, and language.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 16, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071604.pdf?ref=smdp.com)