Kim Basinger has taken a number of rides on popularity’s roller coaster. One year it’s all the way to Oscar glory in L.A. Confidential, the next it’s straight-to-video with Al Pacino. She’s Eminem’s mother, then a kidnap victim in Cellular. Now the 48 year old is doing a Mrs Robinson to the irritation of her put-upon husband, Jeff Bridges. Children’s novelist Ted Cole and his wife Marion lost their twin adult sons in a car accident; they replaced them with a young daughter (Elle Fanning). However, this time Marion is not coping with motherhood. When Ted takes on a teenage intern (Jon Foster), Eddie becomes the catalyst that gives them all the life-changing shake they so desperately need. Based on a novel by John Irving (Hotel New Hampshire), Door In The Floor is a rights-of-passage story for young and old set against the emotional torment of family loss. Ted copes through serial philandering while Marion seizes her chance to escape the past by seducing Eddie. Ever reliable, Bridges turns in a strong performance as the gifted artist while Basinger retreats to her one-note style, in this case, upset. A victim of the Oscar curse, she seems unwilling or unable to loose her character’s coldness, even during the seduction of Eddie, and cripples the film as their characters are reduced to caricature. Despite some nice flourishes and relative charm, those expecting the off-kilter conceit of Garp will be disappointed. Door In The Floor is Irving in a serious mood that in the hands of newcomer Tod Williams stays as cool and reluctant as the New Hampshire summer in which it’s set.// COLIN FRASER