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Rating: 5 out of 5
Before I even watched this movie, I heard snippets about the plot. How a woman is abducted and after years get free and tells her story of the horrors that she endured. It reminded me of the many news stories about how a few women managed to escape their abductors after years of imprisonment. I’m not talking about one or two years. I am talking about how they were gone for almost ten years. Just imagine, being away in a small room or prison for ten years. The life you once knew and wished for is completely gone. It is so sad and sickening. Room, a film directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Emma Donoghue, stars Brie Larson as a woman who is being held captive with her 5-year-old son, who was born in captivity.
Room is a profound and saddening film told almost through the eyes and mind of 5-year old Jack (Tremblay). The movie starts off with a voice-over by Jack telling a story from his imagination. Jack wakes up his Mother (Larson), who he calls Ma, and tells her that he is five years old today. Jack then proceeds to walks around the small room he and his Mother live in by saying good morning to everything in the room. We learn that Ma had been kidnapped when she was seventeen-years-old along with seven years have passed. We also learned that Jack is the son of her abductor, who they call Old Nick. Old Nick comes by every once in a while, to rape Ma. He is truly a despicable person. Ma looks downright terrible. The room is absolutely a shit hole. You want to talk about prison. This is the definition of a prison that even prisoners would shake their heads at. This is solitary confinement. The room consists of a small kitchen, a bed, toilet, bathtub, some books, pictures drawn by Jack all over the wall against a dull brown backdropped, a very shitty tv, and a skylight overhead.
The first half of the film spends time building the relationship between Ma and Jack. They spend time doing certain activities, from having breakfast to doing yoga and a variety of other things. As the film progresses, they celebrate Jack’s birthday, but then the deeply rooted issues and problems start to show in the face of Ma and in the mind of Jack. Jack is a very energetic, bright kid, but he only knows what he sees on television. Since he has never seen anything like trees, dogs, and other things, he believes that they are not real. Anything he sees in the room is real, but everything else is fake, and his mind can’t comprehend the outside world. Not even a leaf that falls on the skylight because it’s not green and it being a different color is not part of a tree. This lack of knowledge wears heavily on Ma because he is the only person she has interaction with. When Ma tries to explain the real world to Jack, it causes one of the biggest fights in the whole movie. Even though Jack might seem like a brat, Ma sacrifices everything for him as she is malnourished and losing a tooth. Jack is her entire world, and the only reason she hasn’t killed herself yet.
The movie really comes to a head as Jack becomes more curious about the world around him and Old Nick becoming frequently violent after one of his nights over. Old Nick turns off the power and heat, which brings great concern to Ma. Finally, realizing that Jack is her way out, she puts all her hopes of survival in one chance to escape. It is one of the greatest escapes ever that starts a whole new adventure for Jack and Ma.
The second half of the film is the next and another hard journey for boy Jack and Ma, who is actually named Joy. The realization of being free and having to adapt to a brand-new world is a lot to take in for both characters. Joy thinks she can move on quickly, but her years of being a teenager and college student are entirely over and passed her by. She realizes that she is a mother and that being open with her pain is too much for her. On the other hand, Jack is now opened to a world he only seen on TV and finally sees that it is real. That there are other people in the world and that the room he once lived in is a very, very tiny part of it. While one-character struggles in the new world, another one thrives with the help of his loving grandmother.
One of the most powerful scenes she has is with her Mother. Joy was talking down to Jack because he sticks to her like glue, doesn’t play with toys, or even sits in a closet. Joy and her Mother get into this massive fight while Joy says she will never know. At first, I was like Joy is being spoiled, but then it dawns on you that she thinks her life is over. How would a person feel that they have been locked away from the world, and the best years of their life are gone? Like a prisoner locked up for a crime they never did and only then are freed later on. What type of effect that has on the mind and soul? You feel for her because everything she once knew is gone: her friends, college, and other things. To be thrust again in the world is soul-crushing even though she is free again.
From Jack’s viewpoint, his little mind must’ve exploded when he laid in the truck and saw the world open up in a quick second. Everything that you once knew was gone, and now your real adventure begins. From a person who only stuck to his mom like glue, Jack soon grew up even more when his Mother went back to the hospital. He finds a friend and has a very touching moment with his grandma that will make you almost cry because it is adorable.
My god was Brie Larson, good in this film. Larson deserved her Oscar, and I give her all the credit in the world. This film really changed how I viewed Larson. Some of the facial expressions she makes truly show what her character was thinking. Sometimes it looked like she wanted to choke Jack, and other times she was so caring. Larson gave one of her best performances ever in this film, and she should definitely be applauded.
Tremblay deserves a tremendous amount of praise for his acting. He was phenomenal as a bright-eyed five-year-old with a wild but also limited imagination. One minute he is cute and sweet, and then the next, he is a complete wild child because he simply doesn’t understand the outside world. His growth as a character is exceptional as his world opens up.
Room is a film that is quite powerful and heart-wrenching. Larson and Tremblay are amazing in this film. After everything they have been through, the ending is one that seems right. They visit the room one last time. One shows fear of returning while the other appears to be amazed because the room that he lived in has shrunken dramatically. After saying goodbye to everything in the room, we know that Mother and son will be okay with the closure of this chapter.
