Room (5/5 Stars)

If I were to compare the experience of watching “Room” to another movie, I would settle on a very odd choice: Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.” Not because it has comparable subject matter but because the two movies have a first half that rivals the best movies ever made and a second half that is merely good. I would suggest anyone somewhat interested in seeing “Room” to read as little about it as possible. Many of the spoilers occur quite early in the movie. Thus it is impossible to discuss the movie without giving something away. So stop reading if you intend on seeing it someday.

“Room” was directed by Lenny Abrahamson. He entered my consciousness with last year’s “Frank” starring Michael Fassbender as a very alternative musician. “Frank” was an exceptionally unique movie at turns comical and whimsically strange. This movie is especially gritty and seriously real. The contrast shows Abrahamson’s exceptional range through two movies. I highly anticipate his next one.

“Room” was adapted by Emma Donoghue from the novel “Room” by Emma Donoghue. It is somewhat rare that a novelist would write the screenplay to her own book but given the skillful way it was accomplished here it is more a question of why it is not done more often. I expect the original conceit of the book is still present in the movie. It is quite the conceit. The story is told by a five-year-old boy named Jack who lives in Room with Ma. Also in Room is Bed, Sink, Dresser, and assortment of other household items. What makes Room special is that all these supposedly common household items are not common at all. In fact, there is only one of them known in existence (at least to Jack) and thus each is referred to in the capital. It dawns on the audience that as far as Jack knows, nothing exists outside of Room. It is slowly revealed that his mother has been kidnapped and imprisoned by a man named Old Nick for seven years. He has continually raped her for that entire time thus resulting at least once in a pregnancy. Apparently Ma has not told Jack about the outside world yet.

The first half of the movie contains not only the explanation of what the situation is but also much specificity on how raising a child in a garden shed for five years works. The reality of it automatically makes the situation very intense. That we are then witness to an ingenious scheme of escape in which much of the success of the outcome relies almost entirely on how Jack will react to a lot of things he has never seen before in a situation of incredible danger, is what I meant by the first half of movie being one of the best one hour of movie storytelling I have ever seen. 

Now given that all of this takes place in a little room and consists of a mother and son talking to each other makes the performances very important to the success of the story. In this way, Brie Larson, who plays Ma, has earned her inevitable Best Actress Oscar. She plays her character on many levels: in what she perceives, in what she chooses to reveal to her son, in how she explains to her son what she reveals, and how she feels about all the risks she must make him take. Jacob Tremblay plays Jack in such a realistic way that one would hardly think a five year old would be capable of doing it.

I do not know how much more I am going to willing to write about the movie. This will be one of my shortest reviews in a while as I got to this point and then decided not to write about the second half. You know what other artwork I was reminded of when I saw this movie. I was reminded of Mary Shelley’s book “Frankenstein.” Imagine seeing the world for the first time as a fully conscious creature. There is a moment in this movie where Jack sees the sky for the first time. It is just incredible to be there.