Review: Room

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★★

The unbreakable bond between mother and son is on full display in “Room,” a raw and emotionally powerful film that could very well be one of the best films you’ll see this year.

“Room” is told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack (Jacob Tremblay). Jack has only ever known the one room he shares with his mother Joy (Brie Larson), who he affectionately just calls Ma. Joy has been held captive in this room for seven years and is doing the best she can to raise Jack given her circumstances. But the time has come for Joy and Jack to make their big escape from the small confines of this tiny room. Once they escape, Joy is reunited with her parents (Joan Allen and William H. Macy) and needs to reacclimatize herself to the world. Jack, on the other hand, is discovering everything about this big new world for the first time, and a lot of it is very overwhelming.

“Room” covers almost every kind of emotion you’d expect a film to pull out of you. The claustrophobic first act delivers some absolutely gut-wrenching moments, while latter sections of the film are so moving and uplifting that you might collapse from the weight of its power. There hasn’t been a more emotionally charged film to come out this year, or the last couple years for that matter.

Director Lenny Abrahamson gives his audience the precise point-of-view they need in order to unconditionally empathize with these characters. Not all of us know what its like to be a mother raising a child, but we were all children once discovering things in the world for the first time. Jack experiences and must comprehend everything about the world all at once.

This is an exceptional accomplishment thanks to a director being in sync with his source material and screenplay, written by the novel’s author Emma Donoghue. Having not read the novel, I cannot comment on its translation to the screen. However, the simple story needs no misplaced subplots in order to move along. There’s not much in the way of plot other than the escape, but the story doesn’t demand anything to drive it along. Abrahamson’s direction and the performances by the two leads is enough to keep “Room” never feeling dull or slow.

Lason has been an up-and-coming superstar for a while now, and I can’t believe more people don’t know who she is. After one of the most stunning performances from a young actress I’ve ever seen in “Short Term 12,” the best film of 2013, Larson has yet to match it until now. While she receives top billing, she’s not the star or the focal point of this film, and she knows that. She never tries to overstep her character’s boundaries or be the center of a given scene. Yet, she’s always strong and commanding in her performance. This is a complex roll because Joy is asked to be many different things throughout the film. Larson effortlessly moves through these different emotions, almost as flawlessly as she did in “Short Term 12.”

But “Room” ultimately belongs to young star Tremblay, who is an absolute triumph. Never has someone so young turned in a performance this mature. It’s hard to fathom that this actor is only nine, and may have only been six or seven at the time of production. While Larson is asked to portray a range of contrasting emotions, Tremblay is asked to do even more. He and Larson have such great chemistry that it’s hard to even believe they’re not really mother and son. Once Jack is introduced to the world for the first time, Tremblay’s performance gets exponentially better. The delivery of his actions and dialogue are the most honest of any performance I’ve seen this year. Seeing the sky for the first time, thanking someone for food, or inquiring as to the whereabouts of the household pet are a few standout moments that I can immediately recall, but there’s a stellar moment in every scene. And he’s in every single scene. This kid will wreck your heart with his performance.

“Room” is a stunning film that’s not about kidnapping and captivity, but rather the unshakable bond between a loving mother and her son, and how that love knows no boundaries, not even the small confines of such a tiny room. This is a recurring theme we see in so many films but it rarely connects. When the filmmakers are allowed to strip their film completely down to the bare essential emotions, this whole notion can come out. This is a very heartwarming and uplifting film despite the subject matter that surrounds it. It’s a truly monumental cinematic achievement, and it’s hard to imagine what a better film will look like this year.