The Door in the Floor (2004)

Seen on May 3, 2009 - Netflix dvd
The movie is rated R for nudity, obscenity and sexuality.
The movie is based on the first third of John Irving's 1998 novel, A Widow for One Year.
Ted Cole [Jeff Bridges] is a womaniser, failed writer who finds success with children's stories which he illustrates himself. He uses the neighborhood women as his nude models who eventually double up as his mistresses. His wife Marion [Kim Basinger] is still grieves the loss of his two sons in a car crash for which Ted is responsible; the accident took place nearly 4 years ago. Desperate to comfort his wife and also get her off his hands, Ted hires an assistant Eddie [John Foster] for whom he really has little use. Ted Cole has a hidden agenda; he suggests his wife they try for a time living separately with a hope that this could eventually be a permanent arrangement. Eddie, who has a stark resemblance to one of the killed teenage sons, in turn has come here to learn about creative writing. Later when Marion catches the sex-starved young boy Eddie masturbating with the inspiration of her bra and panties, she soothes him his guilt, invites him to dinner and to sex. Also this intimacy between them was, on her part, without the feelings of guilt and it clear she meant it to douse the boy's sexual frustrations and make a man of him [help him come of age]. Marion also knew that her husband has indirectly meant to urge her into adultery and she eventually leaves him. But while it lasts, the growing distance between them only results in Ted being angry with the boy making him vent it in a number of ways [much like in the movie Voyeur where the husband kills himself in similar situation].
What happens when you open the door in floor and enter? You lose the terra firma. There is in fact a children's story in the film written by Ted about the irresistible curiosity of the child to open the forbidden door in the floor down which several children have disappeared earlier. The ending of the movie also shows him disappear into a door in the floor of his squash court, the literal thus becoming metaphoric. The loss of the children has opened the forbidden door for the couple and knocked down the ground on which their marriage stood.
The film leaves us disturbed enough to think deeply about this tragedy.
AO Scott of NY Times has said: "It[the film version] may even belong in the rarefied company of movies that are better than the books on which they are based."