Movie Review—Room

Room

by Peter J. O'Connell

Room. Released: Oct. 2015. Runtime: 118 mins. Rating: R for language.

Room is a horror story and a love story. The love is that between a mother (Brie Larson) and her child (Jacob Tremblay). The horror is the world in which Ma and Jack are forced to live. That world is a 10-by-10-foot room, actually a shed, in the backyard of Old Nick's house.

Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) abducted Ma when she was 17 and imprisoned her in the room, periodically raping her. At 19 she gave birth to Jack, who is having his fifth birthday when the movie begins. 

Though a prison, the room is not exactly a cell. It is soundproofed, and a high skylight is its only window, but it does have some minimal, beat-up furniture, plumbing and appliances. The general; “ambience” is that of a very small and rundown studio apartment in a bad neighborhood. From time to time, Old Nick—who actually appears to be in his 30s—unlocks the shed and leaves a few groceries, toys, books and other items. Sometimes he rapes Ma; sometimes he beats her.

Ma courageously—and tenderly—attempts to make life as normal as possible for her growing son under the abnormal circumstances. She is creative and imaginative in educating and caring for him. Jack is quite intelligent and curious about their circumstances, their past and the nature of the outside world. He has reached the stage, though, where he now wants to know the difference between the stories that his mother told him to entertain and comfort him when he was younger and what is “really real.”

Ma has tried to escape several times in the past, but she realizes that, because of the point that Jack has reached in his development, she must make an even more resourceful attempt now, even if only Jack can escape. Amid excruciating suspense, that attempt is made.

It would be unfair to those who have not yet seen this intriguing and affecting film—directed by Lenny Abrahamson, with a screenplay by Emma Donoghue from her novel—to go into more plot detail. Suffice it to say that Room powerfully points out that there can be psychological as well as physical “rooms” and that love—being able to receive it as well as give it—is the greatest aid for escape to full freedom.   

In recent years a psycho's imprisonment of an abductee has become a somewhat frequent meme in horror and crime movies and TV shows. This meme—based, sadly, on too many incidents in real life—is too often treated in an exploitative manner. That is definitely not the case with Room. Lenny Abrahamson's circumspect direction of Emma Donoghue's quality screenplay and the superb performances of Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay prevent that.

Larson's expressive face has an amazing capacity to convey several emotions—say, love, fear, anger—at the same time. And Tremblay's performance is one of the best ever given by a child actor. The movie itself and Abrahamson, Donoghue and Larson all have received Oscar nominations (richly deserved). Tremblay also should have received one.

“Footnote” to the film: Though she is little-known, Brie Larson has generated so much buzz for her performance in Room, a low-budget film with only a few characters, that she has been cast as the female lead in the massively budgeted spectacle Kong: Skull Island, slated for release later this year.