How anyone could watch ROOM and not be touched in some way
is beyond my comprehension. It is by far one of the most amazing films that I
saw to be released this past year and one that takes your emotions on a
rollercoaster ride that continues even after the credits roll. I sat watching
the movie absorbed in the tale it had to tell, angry at times, concerned at
others and walking away with a love of life that few films can inspire these
days.
Most people will know the basic set up of ROOM prior to
watching it. Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue it tells the story of Ma (Brie
Larson) and Jack (Jacob Trembly) who are together in the single setting of a
room. Deeper than that is the realization that Ma was kidnapped and held
hostage here giving birth to Jack during the years of her captivity. Now the
two of them remain prisoners of the rarely seen Old Nick (Sean Bridgers), the
man who kidnapped Ma years ago and who abuses her sexually when the mood
strikes.
For the better part of 40 minutes the movie focuses on how
Ma and Jack live together. The movie begins with his 5th birthday
and Ma deciding that she needs to find a way to get out or at least get Jack
out so he can live a normal life. That a movie can hold your interest in a
single setting, a room, without letting go is a testament to how good this
movie is.
SPOILER ALERT. So if that’s all you want to know stop
reading now. What happens after those first 40 minutes are so are the most
amazing parts. Their escape plan works and Jack finds himself in the world
outside. For 5 years the only world he has known was room, an 11x11 room with a
skylight in the ceiling. Now he finds the entire outside world before him and
is dumbstruck with all that he must absorb before he can escape Old Nick. But
escape he does and eventually is reunited with Ma.
And here the story goes on a whole different track. The
movie now focuses on how not just Jack but how Ma must deal with adapting to
the real world as well. While everyone realizes that Jack must learn how to
cope with this outside world few comprehend how Ma, 17 when she was abducted,
must also relearn what the world is like. She must come to grips with how no
one found her. She must deal with how the world looks at Jack, the child of an
abductor. She must learn to live with being unable to escape so long ago and it
all takes its toll.
We witness the world through Jack’s eyes most of the time,
learning about this new world. He learns that there are many people in this
world, including his grandparents. Grandma (Joan Allen) and grandpa (William H.
Macy) are now divorced and grandma lives with Leo (Tom McCamus). Shy and
withdrawn he must learn to develop trust with them, learn what the world is
like and deal with his mother trying to cope as well.
The movie grips you by the throat early on and rarely let’s
go as it progresses from start to finish. The emotional rollercoaster ride I
spoke of has you in fear of what will happen to Ma and Jack. It will have you
sad watching the terrors that they go through and considering what it must be
like to have been held a captive for years. It will encourage anger as you
consider what this monster Old Nick has done to the lives of all he touched,
his victim and her friends and family. And it will leave you filled with a
sense of joy at discovering through the eyes of young Jack exactly what this
world has to offer.
Larson won the Academy Award this year for best actress and
deservedly so. Her performance here is amazing to watch. She moves from strong
protector to little girl once again and her character feels she isn’t the
mother she should be when Jack lets her know that she is. What stuns me is that
Trembly, even though he is so young, wasn’t nominated at least for supporting
actor. His performance is something one would never expect from a child.
I’ll say again that I can find no way that anyone who
watches this film will not be touched in some way. Watching it at home will
make it much easier on viewers as those who might cry won’t have to worry about
who sees them at different times in the film. If the movie doesn’t touch you
then you have no soul. I now have to see SPOTLIGHT, the winner for best picture
Oscar, just to see if it was better than this movie. Somehow I doubt that it
will be but I will be content in knowing that this film was one of the most
deserving of the nominations for that title.
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