Room Movie Review

And here it is. Possibly the most acclaimed movie of the holiday season (at least by critics anyway). I saw this movie and... wow. 

Major warning. If you have a son or daughter or any kind of offspring, you will cry like your freaking five. I know because I did... twice actually; with great intensity each time. I'm really not exaggerating this fact. People in the theater were literally sobbing like nothing I've ever seen before. And who the hell will say that's a negative?!

"Room" stars Brie Larson (in the role that should win her an Oscar) as a young woman who is kidnapped and held hostage in a ten by ten garden shed for seven years. During these dark episode of her life, the man holding her hostage rapes her. This results in the birth of Jack (Jacob Tremblay) who is held in Room as well.

This child knows nothing of the outside world. He believes that this small garden shed is everything God ever created so when Joy (Brie Larson) hatches a brilliant escape plan, many of the events that follow confused him greatly. And yes the escape scene is a tear-jerking moment.

This movie was interesting, and not just because everyone in the cast knocked in out of the park. The journey that Joy and Jack share is very moving and very honest. Both of them pose as a kind of yin and yang. When one is down, the other is there to support them. This relationship they have and how they react to the world around them is what makes this movie as great as it is.

The mother of Brie Larson, played by Joan Allen in possibly her best role ever, says to her "When I look at you Joy, I will see my daughter". In this quote, you can learn so much about what has happened to Joy as a character. Being trapped in Room for so long changed her personality so much that she is literally a different person.

If your a grammar-nazi like my English teacher, you have probably noticed that I have written "Room" instead of "the room" like its an actual character. This is probably the most interesting stylistic choice made on behalf of writer Emma Donoghue. She chose to describe certain objects within Room as being people. Sink instead of the sink, Wardrobe instead of the wardrobe. This small choice makes everything about "Room" feel so much more authentic. Jack's speech skills have not been fully developed yet and these household objects are the only friends he has other than his mother (who does yell at him quite often) so of course he will argue that they are actual people.

The only problem I have with this movie is that the P-T-S-D that Joy suffers from is never flushed out to its fullest. But I have come to forgive this issue because I consider Jack to be the main character; not Joy. So of course he will see things he doesn't understand and being vague and underdeveloped (a metaphor for his character).

In the end I would highly recommend seeing Room if you have enough tears to live through it. While some characters were underdeveloped, the greatness of everything else more then made up for it.

4.8 out of 5 stars