The Door in the Floor

The funniest movie so far this year is this seeming-drama about a family who lost their sons in a car crash. Not exactly standard slapstick starting material, but writer/director Tod Williams, by exposing the stupidity, cruelty and moral indifference of the kind of characters one normally finds in middlebrow dramas, has created one of the smartest mainstream films in quite some time. It’s subtle stuff, and a lot of the really hilarious lines will come off as simple-minded sincerity for the simple-minded viewer, which is, I guess, how Williams wanted to play this. He basically gets two movies in one: a middlebrow drama about pain and feelings and special things that people who’ve outgrown their unicorn posters can still get weepy over; and a viciously cruel comedy about the nihilism and nastiness that often accompany wealth and art.