Tod Williams Movies
Writer/director Tod Williams emerged as a creative force in the early 2000s, and developed and honed a reputation for intelligent, multidimensional, character-driven scripts that spanned a number of genres. The son of a famous architect, Williams took his premier cinematic bow with the 1998 period picture The Adventures of Sebastian Cole -- a seriocomedy about a young man (Adrian Grenier) grappling with an extremely dysfunctional family and an eccentric stepfather who has recently revealed himself to be a transsexual. Williams adapted his follow up, the psychological drama The Door in the Floor (2004) from the first portion of the novel A Widow for One Year by John Irving, after Irving reportedly gave him the adaptation rights without cost. Starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger, Door concerns a family caught in the throes of psychological crisis (and infidelity) after the parents lose their two sons in a devastating automobile accident. That film took its stateside bow to enthusiastic reviews in the summer of 2004. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Tod Williams served as both director and screenwriter for this drama, adapted from a portion of John Irving's novel A Widow for One Year. Ted and Marion Cole (Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger) are a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. After their two teenage sons died in an auto accident, Marion fell into a deep depression from which she has never fully emerged. Meanwhile, Ted has drifted into repeated infidelity, his most recent mistress being the sexually ravenous Mrs. Vaughn (Mimi Rogers), and neither Ted nor Marion are willing or able to devote their full attention to their surviving daughter, Ruth (Elle Fanning). Ted, a successful author of books for children, hires Eddie (Jon Foster), a bright 16-year-old prep-school student, to help him edit his latest manuscript. But Ted is fully aware that Eddie bears a striking resemblance to one of his late sons -- and that this would have a powerful effect on Marion. Eddie quickly develops a strong attraction to his employer's beautiful wife, and Marion, torn between grief and desire, draws him into a sexual relationship that brings the family's many emotional crises to the breaking point. The Door in the Floor also features Bijou Phillips and Louis Arcella. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, (more)
- 1998
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Tod Williams made his feature directorial debut with this teen comedy-drama set in 1983. High school senior and writer wannabe Sebastian Cole (Adrian Grenier) survives a car accident in a remote Southwestern area near the trailer home of a Spanish-speaking woman. As she dresses his wounds, Sebastian looks back over the past year and his dysfunctional family life. After a divorce, Sebastian's near-alcoholic mother Joan (Margaret Colin) remarried. His architect father Hartley (John Shea) was more devoted to career than family. His sister Jessica (Marni Lustig) is off to the West Coast with her dullard boyfriend. Sebastian's stepfather Hank (Clark Gregg) plans a sex change. Since being married to a woman doesn't appeal to Joan, she returns to her native England with Sebastian. Months later, Sebastian moves back to his upstate New York hometown, rejoining Hank. However, Hank is now Henrietta, wearing makeup and women's clothing and serving as both a mother and father figure for Sebastian. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrian Grenier, Clark Gregg, (more)
