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The Door in the Floor

The Door in the Floor

Drama · 2004

A writer's young assistant becomes both pawn and catalyst in his boss's disintegrating household.

Movie details

The Door in the Floor

“The most dangerous secrets are the ones we're afraid to tell ourselves.”

2004 Drama 1h 51m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

A writer's young assistant becomes both pawn and catalyst in his boss's disintegrating household.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Door in the Floor?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Tender Bar

The Tender Bar

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JR is a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father — JR begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams, with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

The Ice Storm

The Ice Storm

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In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hood family is skidding out of control. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century.

This Boy's Life

This Boy's Life

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When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.

Lolita

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American Beauty

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Dolores Claiborne

Dolores Claiborne

Crime · 1995

Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Tod Williams

Written by

Tod Williams

Jeff Bridges

Jeff Bridges

Ted Cole

Kim Basinger

Kim Basinger

Marion Cole

Jon Foster

Jon Foster

Eddie O'Hare

Mimi Rogers

Mimi Rogers

Evelyn Vaughn

Elle Fanning

Elle Fanning

Ruth Cole

Bijou Phillips

Bijou Phillips

Alice

Larry Pine

Larry Pine

Intervistatore

Court is in session

Put The Door in the Floor on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.