Room
The first place one has to start when discussing Lenny Abrahamson’s adaptation of the novel by Emma Donoghue (for which the author also wrote the screenplay) is Brie Larson. A couple of years ago, if you had told me that the lovely and sharp-witted actress in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (as Scott’s venomous ex), TV’s “Community” (as Abed’s quirky love interest) and “21 Jump Street”) could switch gears into a serious force of nature in films like this and “Short Term 12,” I don’t know that I would have believed you. And yet, I’ve seen her move from being Amy Schumer’s sparring partner in “Trainwreck” to an emotionally damaged mother in “Room” in a two-week period, and it’s hard to imagine the transition between these two sides of her talent happening smoother than it does. I haven’t written at length about “Short Term 12,” although I will rectify that in the future, but “Room” is a film that requires immediate discussion, not just for the impressive range it’s lead actress displays in one of the best performances of the year, but for the story it tells.
The first half of “Room” takes place in a 10ft by 10 ft room. There is a sink, a bathtub, a bed, a table, a kitchen area, a wardrobe, a TV and a skylight. The skylight is the only glimpse of the outside world that Ma (Larson) and her son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay), are allowed to see. There is a door through which Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) enters to check in on them once a day, but only he can open it- it’s a metal door, and the key code is known only by him. For Jack, this is the only life he has known since he was born, while for his Ma, it is all she has known for seven years; when she was 17, she came across Old Nick, who asked her to help him with his dog, and he’s held her captive ever since, with a daily routine of physical and emotional abuse to keep her in line. Old Nick is responsible for Ma being a mother to Jack, who is about to turn 5 when the film starts. When Jack was younger, Ma told him stories that helped make Room (as it’s called) feel much bigger than it really is, but now, on his fifth birthday, she begins to feel as though it’s time for the truth. Jack doesn’t believe her, because Room is the only world he’s ever known, but when an incident leads to Old Nick cutting power to Room during the winter, Ma sees an opportunity to probably escape, as long as she can convince Jack of his part in it. Jack manages to escape, and come back for his mother, but life in the larger world will be a big adjustment for both.
I hadn’t read too much about “Room” before seeing it, but knew that is was well-acclaimed and that Brie Larson had garnered much praise for her performance. (She just won the Golden Globe for Best Actress the night before.) Not knowing much was a blessing, because it meant I could go in relatively unsure of how things would play out, and letting the film happen to me in this way was wonderful. That much of the drama comes from Ma (whose real name is Joy) and Jack adjusting to life outside of Room is powerful, because not only do we see different perspectives (for Joy, it’s seeing how life moved on in her absence; for Jack, it’s finally getting to see a bigger world that didn’t know he existed), but we also see some inversions in how their relationship changes. In Room, Ma was responsible for keeping Jack safe and happy, while on the outside, we see that Jack now has to do that for Ma, even if he doesn’t really understand it, and Ma can’t even see it. A key moment is when Ma is being interviewed for television about her ordeal, and the interviewer asks her if she ever considered trying to get Jack out for his sake. We don’t see a meltdown on live TV or a combative back-and-forth like we would expect to see in a lesser movie, but we see the anguish on Ma’s face as she wonders whether she was keeping Jack imprisoned in the same way Old Nick kept her imprisoned. That leads to a dramatic shift in the dynamics of Ma and Jack’s relationship, where we truly see that in the world, Jack will likely have to be the rock for Ma the way she tried to be for him for five years. It’s a devastating inversion for the characters that is made palpable thanks to the great work Larson and Tremblay do. This is an extension of the talents Larson displayed in “Short Term 12,” and she wholly deserves the recognition she’s been getting, while Tremblay’s performance is one of the best child performances in many years. The way these two interact almost makes you think they are mother and son in real life, and it makes “Room” an unforgettable and uplifting experience.
