Room

Starring: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Joan Allen, William H. Macy
Directed by: Lenny Abrahamson
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A kidnap victim (Brie Larson) fights to protect her son (Jacob Tremblay) and give him a normal life in the small shed in which they're imprisoned..

Review:

Tim: It took me a while to build up to seeing Room. Now that I'm a father, I was concerned about the emotional turmoil this movie would take. Indeed, it is an emotionally powerful film that depicts how humans can survive even in the worst of conditions. However, it's told in such a way that you can sit through it. I'm not entirely sure I'd be excited to sit down and watch this movie again, but I'm very happy I saw it. Director Lenny Abrahamson crafts a beautiful, emotional, memorable film.

The film is hard to watch because it vividly depicts a little boy who grows up in captivity, in one small room. The film does a fantastic job of showing what this kind of life would be like. The mother obviously does everything in power to protect her son- sometimes that involves teaching him about the world, but it also involves creating a fantasy world that shields him from the brutal truth about his. It was spellbinding to watch what the two of them did to survive. It makes you ponder the lengths a parent would go to protect their child. This is dramatic and memorable, but it takes an emotional toil to watch. The movie feels shorter than its 2 hour run time because we're so engrossed in this claustrophobic little world of mother and son (with the occasional emergence of their captor into their lives).

The cast is fantastic. Brie Larson has been developing a great career, but this is obviously her breakthrough performance. She deserved the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance here. She's obviously stripped down and natural. What surprised me is that she showed restraint in the role. Sure, there's moments where she is able to put her talent on display and erupt with emotion, but overall, she never approached over-the-top territory. She showed what she needed to show, but much of the strength of her performance is quiet and subtle. I was glad she won the award for this emotional, fully committed performance. I also liked Jacob Tremblay as her son. He's obviously young and inexperienced, but he brought this raw naturalism and energy to the role. They were very fun to watch together. They actually felt like mother and son, which is incredibly hard to portray on screen. They had an authenticity to their relationship that showed up clearly on screen. It was good seeing Joan Allen and William H. Macy, but both had only marginal contributions to the movie. This film is all about Larson and Tremblay.

This film has some tremendous sequences, but my favorite has to be the back of the pickup truck. Abrahamson does everything right portraying this scene. It is off-the-charts intense and riveting. I literally sat on the edge of my seat and could feel my heart taking faster beats. My breath caught up in my throat a little and I was talking to the screen, saying things like, "Come on, kid." I've seen over 3,000 movies and it's extremely rare for me to do that. Everything worked in those scenes, though. The music was perfect and crescendoed at the right time. It was visually depicted brilliantly and the editing was incredible. It was the highlight of the movie for me.

I applaud Room for telling a powerful story about a difficult subject matter. This hit home even more for me in light of the real-life, very similar events that took place a few years ago in my home state of Ohio. It's unfathomable how a human being could do this to another human being. But, in the midst of that darkness of the soul, there's this beautiful little story about light and life and survival. While this movie is hard to watch, it's also uplifting. No doubt about it, this is a great movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 8



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