Review! Room

Room (2015) Directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Starring: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers.

There are so many horrific stories of kidnappings, especially the long term captives, that are incredibly brutal and difficult to even comprehend. I’ve read about so many of these cases, and just reading a description of events makes you sick to your stomach. One such case of Elisabeth Fritzl, an Austrian woman held captive by her father for 24 years apparently inspired Emma Donoghue to write the novel Room about a fictional story of a woman held captive. Watching the film version of the novel is so disturbing and taps into that (rightfully so) deep-seeded fear since childhood of kidnapping.

Room opens with just a 24-year-old woman we’re first introduced to simply as Ma (Brie Larson) on the birthday of her 5-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay). Jack’s entire existence has been in a contained, reinforced shed approximately 10 x 15 feet. His Ma has kept him in a fanciful world of their own, unaware of the real world surrounding them and their captivity. Ma has been held captive for over seven years by a man simply called Old Nick who visits on a nightly basis. The whole situation is frightening for Ma but she obviously is doing her best to shield him as she tries to survive what she knows is a living nightmare.

It’s not a pleasant watch as you can imagine. It’s told through the angle of the son’s point of view, and it keeps the audience at the same distance that Ma keeps him from. When Old Nick comes to visit we never get a sordid depiction of her rape since we stay locked away with Jack. You know what’s happening though, and it’s brutal to experience through a child’s innocence. It felt more effective than a more gratuitous approach. It’s as if the director (Lenny Abrahamson, who most recently made Frank) and writer don’t want to invade Ma’s privacy and space anymore than she already has to for her kidnapper.

The film really delves farther into the dynamics of Ma’s situation than I expected. We really get a thorough view of this woman’s psyche and experience. Brie Larson is spectacular in the role. I thought she was revelatory in Short Term 12 and this is just as fantastic, if not more so. She brings real vulnerability and strength, while seeming true to the character she’s playing. She has such an evocative face and it’s perfect for a role like this where you need to see seven years of suffering in a person’s face at a glance. You really feel that with Larson. She also has a great young co-star in Jacob Tremblay. He has to do a lot of heavy lifting and is certainly one of the best child actors I’ve seen. A lesser performance could destroy the whole movie.

This is definitely a hard movie to watch but it’s on a subject we haven’t really seen much of in film (other than in a Lifetime movie), and I think Room is an excellent depiction. It doesn’t rely on melodrama or thriller genre tropes to make it more consumable. This is an excellent drama about a woman’s survival and her relationship and devotion to her son. It’s about bonds forged in the most terrible circumstances and human resilience. It’s profoundly moving and unflinchingly raw. Room is a must see from this year.

FTS SCORE: 85%