Mediocre Movie Club Movie Reviews

Room

4/12/2016

A-
3.67

A kidnapped mother and son escape from a room in which they have endured imprisonment for the entirety of the boy's life.

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay
Initial Review by Bryan Hartman

Room is a movies based off the book of the same name written by Emma Donoghue. I haven’t read the book to compare, maybe I can talk my better half into chiming in here.

Lenny Abrahamson’s adaptation of the book was fantastic. Room is terribly sad emotionally and physically. At one point tears were pouring out of my eyes. I found myself in knots emotionally over trapping two individuals and even for a brief moment found myself second guessing whether these Ma and Jack were better off inside the room.

The first half or so of the movie is spent wondering how Ma (Brie Larson) and Jack (Jacob Tremblay) are going to get out and how in the world they can even stand each other for that long. The second half is spent wondering how, why, and if either character will recover.

Larson and Tremblay nail the mother-son relationship at a young age. Jack turns 5 as the show begins, but emotionally he acts more like a 3 year old. Many things Ma says to Jack are near verbatim phrases heard in my home or friends’ home when dealing with a 3 year old’s temper.
One of the best things Abrahamson does it actually make the characters and the viewer reconsider whether two people should be trapped in a 10’ x 10’ room – if even for a fleeting second. It’s an incredible feat.

Some fleeting thoughts
Cons: William H. Macy’s character (Jack’s paternal grandfather) did nothing for plot. They could have developed a stronger bond between mother and son on screen.

Memorable scenes:
Jack riding in the truck. My heart was pounding despite knowing what was going to happen.
Jack playing with Legos in the closet.
Ma and Jack’s morning exercise.

I don’t think it was perfect, but I’ll open with an A-. Good choice self.

12 Comments

Phil

4/13/2016 12:49:18 pm

“Room” takes a story we’ve seen in some form or another and twists the formula in a refreshing manner. Most movies like this would be a thriller, with the big escape as the climax and the tearful reunion to cap off a satisfying conclusion. With “Room” however, you could argue that the escape is just the beginning. “Room” challenges viewers to examine the world through Jack’s eyes and understand the aftermath of trauma in a way few other movies have.

While Larson is great as Ma, it’s Jack’s worldview that is the centerpiece here. As far as Jack knows, Room is all there is. That is the world. He’s been led to believe by Ma that anything beyond Room is a fairy tale. Given the situation Ma finds herself in, I’d argue this wasn’t a bad way to raise her son. How could he miss what didn’t exist? It’s a similar situation that I’d imagine people with xenophobia or agoraphobia experience. For Jack though, he doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

However, finally, Ma has had enough. It’s time to break out. Pretending Jack had died was a bold hail mary, as it was one of those plans that she had one chance and one chance only. And really, how could you blame Old Nick for buying it hook, line, and sinker? As far as we know, Ma has been a model prisoner and cares more for Jack than anything in the world. As Bryan eluded to, the truck scene was incredibly tense and well-done. Seeing Jack just freeze when he saw the sky for the first time was equally well-done. Great job all around here; it’s easy to see why Lenny Abrahamson was nominated in the Best Director category last year.

The second half of the movie shifts to moving on from Old Nick and captivity, and we get a great look into trauma aftermath. Ma struggles to deal with everything she’s missed, breaking down at the sight of her yearbooks and knowing that her friends have all moved on and had lives & families. You really couldn’t blame her for having some growing resentment to Jack and those that were free. Seeing the family struggle with Ma not returning back to normal was tough but indicative of the trauma she went through. In a way, you’d have to imagine Ma was similar to any other prisoner and was “institutionalized” by this point. The backlash from the public regarding why Ma didn’t do what was best for Jack was what I found most fascinating. Like any public demonizing though, it’s easy to look at things logically when we aren’t the ones in the middle of the mess.

“Room” is an excellent movie, plain and simple. Great performances, interesting take on a story we’ve seen in some form before, and several excellent questions to ponder. All that said, it’s a tough watch thanks to how heavy it is. But it’s very much worthwhile.

Grade: A

Mindy

4/13/2016 01:31:33 pm

Mindy was supposed to be writing patient notes but did almost 0 work while watching. When asked for a grade...

That's an A

Sean

4/13/2016 02:44:13 pm

Phil nailed the description of Room as a story we've seen told in a way we haven't. I was so invested in Ma and Jack while they were still locked up in Room right away. Aside from being edge of my seat panicky during the escape scene I was also worried the second half of the movie wasn't going to be as strong once the environment changed. I was not disappointed, the handled the world and the emotions inside and out of Room with equal care and equally strong development.

Thoughts
Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson were amazing individually and together.

I'll disagree with Bryan on Bill Macy's character. He's unable to look at Jack because Jack is the physical embodiment of his own failure- failure to protect his little girl, failure to remain hopeful she would one day be found. He left his wife and moved on with his life while grandma kept every item in place in Joy's bedroom for her to eventually return. Jack is also a reminder that in the 7 years Joy has been gone she's been raped on a near nightly basis. Not everyone reacts to trauma the same way and sometime during those 7 years he chose to move on and stop grieving and now suddenly it all rushes back.

The male cop during the rescue was a dick, but probably like a percentage of real cops who would see a virtually catatonic child as endless paperwork and hope to push off on someone else as soon as possible. Lady cop was awesome getting just enough out to get a search perimeter established.

Interview lady was a mega bitch and probably the most unrealistic part of the movie. The questions about giving Jack up as a baby to live a normal life - no way the 1st primetime interview with Joy would go that way. That's more the type of line of questioning that would come up 10 years later during a where are they now segment, or if Joy were to have a book deal about her experience then the grilling questions would come.

Jack missing Room sometimes get me going every single time. When grandma mentions that it must be small and he says, "uh uh, it went every direction all the way to the end. It never finished. And Ma was always there" that line wins runner up for best line out of me (Kissel save for next Mediocirites) Jack summing up that he had everything he needed in Room and in this moment in the world he does not because Ma is not here. When they returned to Room and Jack discovered just how small it really was and he didn't even recognize it. The camera work made the viewer feel the exact same thing.

The winner for best line comes soon after when Ma returns and it's the combo,

"I'm not a good enough Ma." "But you're Ma"

A

4/13/2016 03:47:31 pm

While I liked that they did show the public backlash to Joy (somehow forgot her name even though it blew my mind that two of the top acting performances this year were for characters named Joy), I agree that the immediacy of it was convulluted. I allowed it for the sake of narrative.

Great point about how Room looked upon the return. It was incredible to see it again and how small it was. That was great filmmaking.

Bryan

4/14/2016 10:01:18 am

"Great point about how Room looked upon the return. It was incredible to see it again and how small it was. That was great filmmaking. "

+1

"Interview lady was a mega bitch and probably the most unrealistic part of the movie. The questions about giving Jack up as a baby to live a normal life - no way the 1st primetime interview with Joy would go that way. That's more the type of line of questioning that would come up 10 years later during a where are they now segment, or if Joy were to have a book deal about her experience then the grilling questions would come."

I don't watch cable TV to know if this is true, but it doesn't seem unreasonable.

I'll see if I can get Chelsea to address a few discrepancies between the book at movie.

Jon

4/15/2016 03:52:06 am

I have no problem with the sneakily hostile media. I've noticed with a lot of these years-long abduction stories that commentators of the Nancy Grace school wonder why people didn't escape earlier or fight back.

Skeptical sidebar: The skeptical podcast I listen to (SGU) devotes some time to TV psychics, none moreso than Sylvia Browne. After a kid was abducted, his parents went on her show and asked about the kid's whereabouts. Browne assured them he was dead. He turned up several years later when his kidnapper was busted trying to grab another kid. Anyways, I looked into the story, and at the time the original kid was discovered, there was plenty of commentary about how he was having the time of his life, playing video games and skateboarding freely and not going to school. Never mind that he was abducted at the age of 9 or 10 and his kidnapper was doing exactly what everyone thinks he was doing.

Sidebar over. If anything, the interviewer was too nice to Ma based on how these people are often treated, and the distinct lack of empathy for unknowable situations.

4/16/2016 01:23:27 pm

1st interview is gonna be kid gloves Good Morning America or Today Show. Not batshit Nancy Grace types.

Cooker

4/13/2016 03:12:30 pm

4/13/2016 03:12:59 pm

“I did not hit her, it's not true! It's bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not. Oh hi, Mark.”

I was so stoked that someone nominated Tommy Wiseau’s masterpiece The Room. I’m just fuckin’ with y’all. I watched the right movie.

I heard good things about Room and luckily the library had a copy available. At first, I thought, Ugh, another annoying kid movie. But Jacob Tremblay played the role of Jack incredibly. I truly believed that this was a 5-year-old kid that was unaware of the existence of the world because he grew up living in a one room shed. I agree with the initial review that Tremblay and Brie Larson, who played his mother, did a fantastic job portraying the mother-son relationship. I couldn’t even imagine being in their situation.

A few notes…

Upon first glance at Jack, I had a Taylor Hanson-like gender-identity crisis situation where I literally had to look up the actor/actress that played the role.

I liked the scene where he two were shrieking in the room. I am glad that the kid only shrieked like that once.

I’m glad there was confrontation in the scene where Jack tries to escape the truck and that he didn’t just escape easily. I’m even more impressed that the police seemed to use little technology in discovering the location of the shed with the skylight. Although, I was half expecting them to run a DNA test on the tooth to discover the identity of the mother if the kid didn’t talk.

I was a fan of the narrations by Jack as things progressed through his experiences inside and outside of the room. And I liked that the movie was split around 50/50 of being trapped inside and trying to adjust outside.

Overall, a very well-made drama with an excellent musical score, good story and even better acting. Likewise, going A- on this one.

Lane

4/15/2016 01:02:53 am

Here’s one of the constant artistic putdowns of the modern era: “it wasn’t as good as the book.” I wonder how old this trope is? What was the first film where someone said, “Jeez, I really loved that Fritz Lang movie, but damn, the book was way better”?

I remember first hearing this the summer I was probably about 11 or 12 years old and read four John Grisham novels in a row in about three weeks, only to hear that “The Firm” and “The Pelican Brief” and “The Client” weren’t “as good as the book.” Just to be contrarian, I defended those films with all my hear, and maybe I still would, even though I know they suck. When I was a teenager, I read every Stephen King book published up to 2003, then watched all the movies once I was old enough to get my own Blockbuster card and realized they all basically sucked. Oh well.

And even now; what are the best books to have been turned into successful films? The only films I can think of now that turned into better artistic expressions than their literary counterparts are “The Godfather I and II,” “The Exorcist,” “Jaws” (all from the ‘70’s), and maybe “Stand By Me” and “Silence of the Lambs.” Maybe. Otherwise, I’m hard pressed to think of a film that clearly surpassed its book when they were both playing on the same field of artistic turf.

I admit here that I have not read “Room.” Nor, do I plan to. I’m sure it’s great; I meant to read it when it came out in 2010. I’ve just had other things on my nightstand and it’s far enough down my to-read list at this point that I’ll never get to it. However, I will stand here (electronically) and make the judgment that this is a film that would have probably been better to stay a book. Or a one-season television series on Netflix or FX? Maybe by Ryan Murphy?

I don’t mean to say that “Room” is a bad film. It’s not. It’s really good in many ways. But how does one determine the division between a story that should be a 2 hour film or a 8/10/13 hour television show? I watch “Room” and I think what could have been.

The part of “Room” I could have done without was the whole section Brie Larson wasn’t in. That whole 20 minutes of film felt like what usually happens in episode 7 of most miniseries. It’s the throwaway section when there could have been so much productive narrative fodder: backstory, or what happened while she was in psychiatric treatment, or why come back to her child? So many questions that the film just doesn’t have the time to answer.

Think about if this has been a10 episode miniseries on HBO. Episodes 1-2: in “room” and the bungled escapes; episodes 3-5: acclimation to the new world; episodes 6-10: Ma and Jack come to terms with their demons and find their place in the new world. What a great season! Some of the best characters in the film (William H. Macy) get their chance to shine and storylines we wish we could see (Ma in the psychiatric ward) come to light. I might even stop borrowing my ex-wife’s HBO Go password and sign up for my account to watch that.

Alas, we get it all compacted into 2 hours and that’s a shame. The idea of “Room” is that it’s a confined narrative that expands into the world, yet that film lacks the conventions of movies that have done that well in the past. I was hoping for the tension of a “Panic Room” or psychological drama like “Reservoir Dogs” but “Room” didn’t deliver that. Or, I was hoping for a bigger narrative expansion and yet we never get a sense of anything bigger than the domestic middle class landscape of…Ohio? No thanks.

This films needed more run time or a more dialectical story line to make things happen and neither appeared. You can’t always have your cake and eat it too.

I haven’t read the book, but I bet it was better. I commend the pick, but I wish more for the movie.

Grade: B

4/15/2016 03:44:07 am

Room is the second Lenny Abrahamson film I've seen, after his breakout Frank in 2014. That excellent film is about an experimental musician who wears a papier-mache head over his real head at all times. It's an absurd premise that builds to a surprisingly emotional and perceptive climax, and it's a film that finds pathos in humorous situations. Room does the opposite, placing its characters in a hellish prison but allowing them to revel in daily doses of reverie potent enough to allow them to forget, just for a brief snippet of time, where they are. It helps that one of the leads doesn't know any different. Room has the potential to be a miserable experience, like Frank could easily have been a disposable one only about human oddity, but Abrahamson and his cast and crew know how to tell a nuanced story, following through on emotions and experiences where other films might have been content to only focus on events.

For as small as the world of Room is, the building of that world might be the most impressive part of the film. Abrahamson and his production designer Ethan Tobman have thought out every detail, as well as organic methods to show it off. Jack says hello to everything when he wakes up, running his fingers across every surface as we meet Egg-Snake and Wardrobe and Skylight. Abrahamson and his cinematographer Danny Cohen use low angles to put the viewer in Jack's head as he takes in all he's ever known. He might not know the story of every object, but he's likely made one up. The viewer can do the same. Did the knife get the point snapped off of it before it got into Room, or did it lose its point after Ma tried to escape? Does that big stain on the rug herald Jack's emergence into the world, or something more horrifying? Others have praised the difference between the size of Room at the beginning and at the end, as Cohen uses different angles to film the space, and it's a brilliant trick that makes the film eminently more entertaining. I didn't feel any claustrophobic discomfort in the first act but marveled at the tiny space in the end. I admit to scoffing when Abrahamson got a Best Director nod, but it's visual tricks like that that make me retract any disbelief.

It's a big gamble to put all that detail and camera-work on the shoulders of a little kid, and I'm generally skeptical of small child performances, but Jacob Tremblay is never false or mugging or otherwise unbelievable. I think this is one of the great kid performances, up there with Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon and Max Records in Where the Wild Things Are. Tremblay is so recognizable and well-observed as a five year old. He's bad with judging how long things take, amazed at gross things like a rotten tooth, and flits between whispers and yelling or certainty and doubt within the same sentence. He nails the vulnerability of a kid that's scared but doesn't want to admit it. It's the kind of performance that would make the Grinch's heart grow several sizes, something primal that taps into any feeling person's parental instincts, except on those times when he's being an unpleasant dick and I'm hurrying out my sister's house and back to an untethered life where I stay up til 4 writing movie reviews instead of stuck in a 10 x 10 space with an ornery child. Seeing remnants of a life that you're living in a character is about the strongest compliment I can pay to an actor, and I'm happy to pay it to Tremblay.

4/15/2016 03:44:48 am

Tremblay gets most, if not all, of the lightness in Room, and every bit of it is welcome, because Brie Larson is in a very different film. As the doctor says, Jack is still plastic and moldable. He'll be fine thanks to the fiction that Ma created and her wild success at shielding him from what was actually happening in Room. He's probably not going to have Gone Day's, where he never gets out of bed or turns head away from the wall. He's definitely not going to blame himself and wonder about different paths. It is bold of Emma Donoghue to follow Ma after she escapes, because as others have mentioned, these stories often end at freedom. It's not like Room whiffs on that moment, because the escape is extremely tense and impossibly cathartic, but it's a dishonest story if it ends there. The escape is just the beginning for Ma, and lacking knowledge in PTSD counseling, this segment felt as lived-in and real as anything through Jack's eyes. Larson is well-established here in the MMC, and she'll likely make her mark on the 2016 Mediocrities with her fearless performance, if for no other reason than the distant frustration she has on her face while Jack is playing with his remote control car.

Joan Allen and Sean Bridgers also deserve special consideration, playing roles with two very different degrees of difficulty. Allen has no trouble with the supportive, struggling grandma, and it's kind of a stock role, but she still managed to reach into my chest. The scene of the film is Jack telling her he loves her, and she struggling to maintain her composure, while the camera unobtrusively films them from a distance, as if it's vulgar to witness a scene of that much feeling. On the Deadwood podcasts, we're often praising Johnny Burns' gleeful dunder-headed-ness, but here, Bridgers is anything but. Just as Jack can get used to anything, because he's essentially a sociopath with limited empathy, like all children, Old Nick is a person who should've grown out of that long ago but somehow has not. He treats and talks about Ma like a nagging wife, and likely views her that way after years of captivity. It's a repulsive character made moreso by how average the character seems, and it's a masterstroke of the film to not bring him back at all after the escape.

This is occasionally a hard film to watch or recommend, but it's an easy film to love. It feels like all involved really poured their hearts into making it, and the end result of their efforts is more humanity-affirming than the setting implies it would be. I'm not going to go the full A, because I do think the ending is too pat, though it is admittedly not so much an ending as it is a place where credits roll. It would've been nice to see Ma in therapy, perhaps admitting the darkest of thoughts about it being best if Jack never existed (I was certainly thinking that and that kid was great). The choice to make the film primarily about Jack is ultimately the right choice, I think, but it could've shifted slightly more towards Ma. Abrahamson is a genius. I recommend Frank as a palate cleanser. A-

Room

A-
3.67

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Room

A-3.67

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A-
3.67