Room

Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Writing Credits Emma Donoghue …(novel and Screenpay )
Cinematography by Danny Cohen
Runtime 118 minutes Color
Aspect Ratio 2.35 : 1
Camera Red Epic Dragon, Panavision Primo and Ultra Speed MKII Lenses

CAST
Brie Larson … Ma
Jacob Tremblay … Jack
Sean Bridgers … Old Nick
Wendy Crewson … Talk Show Hostess
Sandy McMaster … Veteran
Matt Gordon … Doug
Amanda Brugel … Officer Parker
Joe Pingue … Officer Grabowski
Joan Allen … Nancy
Zarrin Darnell-Martin … Attending Doctor
Cas Anvar … Dr. Mittal
William H. Macy … Robert
Randal Edwards … Lawyer
Justin Mader …FBI Agent

You were born into, and have never left a single small room. You are turning five years old, and your only information comes from your mother, who has never left that same room since two years prior to your birth. The only connection that you have to the outside world is through a single skylight, placed high enough, and centered, to avoid any view other than the sky- that and television.

We understand the horror and isolation a captor has forced upon them, but the mother, in an attempt to protect her son  and provide the closest she can come to normality,  creates a set of rules that best explain the world in which he lives.  The walls reach to the end, their room is their planet. What they see on TV are not real, they are Television planets, and the sky is heaven.

There is one other person that enters their room, the man, that when she was just 17, kidnapped her, locked her in his shed, and comes periodically to drop off food and supplies, after raping her. The mother (Brie Larson), is desperate to separate her son from witnessing the abuse she suffers by “Old Nick” her captor, and clearly the father of her child. Mom makes her son Jack hide in a wardrobe cabinet while Nick is present,  but the small shed provides little privacy. Jack, convinced there is no such thing as a world “Outside of Room,”  is not completely sure if Nick is a visitor from a TV Planet .  Jack is her world, and even her desperation to escape, pales in comparison of her love of, and need  to protect her son.

 

This might sound like a dreadfully dark, thoroughly depressing film, but that would ignore the heartwarming relationship between Jack and his Ma. Within the confides of their world there is love, and Jack is a surprisingly happy well adjusted child. The acting performance by Brie Larson is powerful, touching and seems to be always spot-on.  She must be strong long after anyone else would have forsaken all hope. In fact this movie, actually becomes a tale of hope and the power of love.

 

Jack (Jacob Tremblay) defies one’s expectation of the acting abilities of a small child. He exhibits a range of emotions and passages of dialogue seemingly impossible for one his age.

The art direction and cinematography work together to tell a story, despite so much of it being in such a confined space.