When it comes to the people we care about most deeply, few of us know just what we are capable of, or what we might do in the name of love. In a moment of crisis, what is in an individual's nature? And do they obey that nature or violate it, forever removing themselves from it? Todd Field's IN THE BEDROOM (2001) addresses this question with the story of a family in the midst of such a crisis - and an exploration of the extraordinary actions love can mitigate; pushing any one of us to places off the points of our moral compass.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Acting at this year's Sundance Film Festival, IN THE BEDROOM (2001) won over film festival audiences with its intense realism and peerless performances from a cast that includes Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Marisa Tomei and Nick Stahl. The film is a Miramax release directed by Todd Field, who makes his feature film debut. The screenplay is by Robert Festinger and Todd Field based on a short story by the late Andre Dubus.

Summer time on the coast of Maine, IN THE BEDROOM (2001) centers on the inner dynamics of a family in transition. Matt Fowler (Tom Wilkinson) is a doctor practicing in his native Maine and is married to New York born Ruth Fowler (Sissy Spacek), a choral music teacher. Their only child, Frank (Nick Stahl), home from school for the summer, is working as a part time lobsterman to earn money for graduate school in the fall. He is involved in a love affair with a local single mother (Marisa Tomei). As the beauty of Maine's brief and fleeting summer comes to an end, these characters find themselves in the midst of unimaginable tragedy.

In the Bedroom (2001) is the directorial debut from multi-talent Todd Field, an accomplished actor who has been seen in such films as Victor Nunez's "Ruby In Paradise (1993)" and Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut (1999). " Field took inspiration from the work of the celebrated American short story writer Andre Dubus, who passed away in 1999. Dubus sketched a compassionate, unsentimental portrait of the American soul. Dubus's people perform acts of the most squalid duplicity and stoic, sometimes even heroic, decency - whether at a roadside bar, or a family camp, in the everyday rigors of domesticity or its violent extremes, their lives unfold with an inevitability that is moving, sometimes redemptive and always surprising.

To bring the story alive, Field knew he would need a cast that could make the Fowlers seem as palpably real as Dubus's characters. At the core of the tale is the upended marriage of the Fowler parents: Matt and Ruth, played by Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek. These emotionally charged performances that pendulum from blissful to devastated to resolved- performances that often must say volumes in moments of terse silence.

Spacek was immediately drawn to the story's inherent suspense and emotional fireworks. "Here was this beautiful script with beautifully drawn characters that kept taking totally unexpected twists and turns," she says. "I couldn't put it down. It reminded me so much of the way life really is sometimes where everything's going along in an ordinary way and two seconds later, you're spinning out of control. That's what happens to the Fowlers, but they're so much like the people we know and the people we are, that it really shakes you up. "

The actress also felt herself compelled by the complexities of Ruth Fowler, a quiet, controlled woman whose moorings are suddenly cut out from under her. "Ruth is a woman who might love music, but her real career in life has been raising her son," she explains. "I think it's easy to question her actions in hindsight, but, like most mothers, the thing that Ruth most wants is to protect her son from making mistakes in his life. "

Spacek found that the story of the Fowlers remained continually fresh during production because the questions raised by their story could never quite be answered. She ponders: "Is this a story of forgiveness or a story of retribution? Is it a story of justice or a story of love? It encompasses so many things that I think it will really get people talking afterwards. It makes us all wonder what we would do if we found ourselves in this kind of situation. "

Tom Wilkinson also found himself contemplating what he might do in Matt Fowler's shoes. "The thing I had to figure out for myself is how a man makes the journey from a warm, kind, loving, man to someone who is capable of things he previously couldn't have imagined," explains the actor.

Wilkinson also was impressed by the story's endless layers. "This is a story about marriage, about love, about loss, but it is also an unconventional thriller. What makes it so exciting is that it is a story where you are constantly uncertain what's going to happen next," he says.

Working with Wilkinson was a high point for Sissy Spacek who calls him "a powerhouse of an actor. " "He's very sweet and warm and funny and complicated and all these qualities come out in his characterization of Matt. It was easy to imagine being married to him for many, many years," she observes.

An Englishman, Wilkinson immersed himself in the Maine culture and accents prior to filming - and, along with Nick Stahl, received a crash-course in lobstering. Both actors were taken out on several trips with local professional lobster fisherman and given a taste of the intensely physical labor involved. "This is where Matt and Frank really seal their bond," notes Wilkinson. "But what I didn't know is that lobstering is actually quite scary. You can't really look at a lobster without imagining digits being snapped off. So I was none too excited about putting my hands into these seething cauldrons of crustaceans. Luckily it turned out to be great fun - and I understood why Matt likes going out to sea with Frank, because it takes you beyond time and place. "

Frank, the Fowler's barely adult son, has thrown his parents for a loop by falling deeply in love with an older woman, Natalie, played in an emotionally nuanced departure by Marisa Tomei. Tomei was immediately drawn to the film's riveting script and particularly to Natalie, a character whose heart she felt she understood.

"Natalie is at a very vulnerable and brave place in her life," observes Tomei. "She's coming to terms with her disillusionment over family, marriage and love. And I think that she's really surprised that this is all happening through a guy who's much younger and from a totally different social class than she is. But I like that she's bold enough to go with that, even in this small town - she's really an unconventional and open-minded woman. She goes against your expectations and I like that. "

Tomei was especially fascinated by Natalie's journey as the film's story progresses towards its stunning conclusion. "Natalie is really interesting in the big picture of this story because I think she eventually comes to forgive everyone -- Richard, Frank, the Fowlers -- everyone except herself," she observes.

In the beginning, Tomei thought she might have to fight for the role, which is different from the mainly urban, and often comical, characters for which she is best known. "I was worried that Todd Field would think that I wasn't the right person for the role, but I really knew I could play Natalie," she says. "When we finally met it was wonderful. Todd works in such an intimate and creative way that it worked out beautifully. " To further hone Natalie's accent and way of being, Tomei also spent several days with a local Maine woman similar to Natalie in background, soaking in her patterns of speech and body language.

Once on the set, the high point for Tomei was working closely with one of her actress heroines: Sissy Spacek. "Working with Sissy was a big draw for me because I think she is such a genius in her craft," she says. "I learned a lot from her. One thing that really inspired me is the completeness of her devotion. She really gives her all to her performance, which can be scary because it's so intense. But she does it in a way that makes it fun and creative for the people working with her. We had a great time together. "

Meanwhile, Tomei got to play the veteran with Nick Stahl, who stars as her much younger lover Frank. "I called him the baby groom," she laughs. "But he was really wonderful and mature. " Stahl, a child actor turned rising-star, returns to the Maine coast where he shot his debut feature, Mel Gibson's "Man Without A Face, The (1993). "

I really like Frank," says Stahl. "I like him because he's a young man at a crossroads, trying to decide between the life that's been mapped out for him by his parents - going to college, getting a professional job -- and a life spending time with the woman he loves and living as a lobster fisherman like the locals do. "

Frank's predicament is only made more intense by his desire to become a parent to Natalie's children - even though their real father, Richard, disapproves. "Frank knows what he wants but he's not quite prepared for the emotions that Richard is going through," he says. "He's in way over his head. "

To better understand Frank, Stahl also spent days at sea living the life of a lobster fisherman "It's a whole other world that is fascinating to me," says Stahl, "but I wouldn't want to do it for the rest of my life. It's very primal, hard work. Maybe it has to be in your blood, as it is with Frank. I think he really loves doing this. "

But what Frank loves most in life is Natalie. She remains caught up with her ex husband Richard Strout, played by William Mapother, who brings his own innate intensity to the role. Richard is a threat in Frank's eyes, but Mapother came to his portrait of Richard through sympathy. "I don't see Richard as a bad guy," he says. "He is a guy whose life hasn't quite turned out the way he planned. He was a promising high school athlete, he married a beautiful woman, had two kids, and it should have been perfect but it was more than he could handle. "

On the opposite side of the spectrum from Richard is Matt's seemingly mild-mannered best friend Willis, played by William Wise. Wise enjoyed the rare realism of the friendship between the two middle-aged male characters. "This is a great portrait of male friendship," he says. "Willis is just a regular guy but when he sees his friend in a moment of great crisis, he's there for him no matter what. "

Like the rest of the ensemble, Wise found himself constantly intrigued by the moral questions deep in the fiber of the story's unfolding. "I think what makes this story so effecting is that it's about what happens to people's values when they reach a crisis," he says. "We really care about these people, and they seem a lot like us, but are we capable of what they are? It's impossible to know for sure. "

Todd Field brings to IN THE BEDROOM (2001) a stark visual sense that echoes the story's themes, using the evocative seasons and settings of his native Maine to stand as counterpoint to the emotions boiling under the surface.

Although he is a first-time feature film director, Field's extensive experience in the film world as an actor gave him an inside edge. "But more than that he had extraordinary passion," says Sissy Spacek. "He's a real artist in the old-fashioned sense - someone who cares deeply about every aspect of his work. "

Adds Tom Wilkinson: "What I love about working with any first time director is that they tend to come at things from an unorthodox point of view. I like that sense of impending potential, of being daring enough to try anything, and Todd really has that. He's done an amazing job with very challenging and complex material. "

Field was also very open to letting the actors in on the creative process. In fact, Sissy Spacek even worked with set designer Shannon Hart to create the Fowler family home. Says Spacek: "I was grateful to be included in the design because the house is really the anchor for this family, and especially for Ruth. Every detail counts in this story, and it's the little touches that build a portrait of who the Fowlers are.