– Film Review By Cate Marquis –
‘Room’ is taut tale of survival and a mother’s love in confined space and beyond
“Room” takes viewers inside the cramped space where a young woman, held captive since she was kidnapped at age 17, lives with her 5-year-old son, the only world her son has ever known – but then takes on their journey after they escape. It is that second part that makes this survivors’ story so powerful and intriguing.
Revealing that they escape is no spoiler – the filmmakers want audiences to know this is a survivors’ story, and in fact, that event occurs about a third of the way into the story. It gives the film enough time to grasp the details of their life in confinement and the limits of Jack’s world. Although the film is loosely based on a novel partly inspired by the experience of a woman held hostage in Europe, the story will also bring to mind the 2013 rescue of four young women held hostage for years in a house in Cleveland after one of them, Amanda Berry, escaped with her 6-year-old daughter.
Jack’s mother (Brie Larson), whom he calls Ma, has worked hard to create the best childhood she can for her son within the tiny room, which is actually a backyard shed. Showing enormous strength and determination, Ma has created as normal a life for Jack (Jacob Tremblay) as she can in their claustrophobic world. There is structured time for play, learning, meals and chores. They exercise by running back and forth and practicing yoga together, engage in craft projects with bits of trash, and she does her best to teach him and encourage his spirit. Their only view of the outside world is a skylight that permits a shaft of light to pierce the room. Although they have television, Jack has never seen outside and is skeptical that a world exists beyond the walls of “room” as they call their home. When Ma’s captor visits her in the evening, Jack hides in the wardrobe where he sleeps. On his sixth birthday, Ma announces a plan to escape.
Director Lenny Abrahamson, whose previous films include the intriguing indie “Frank,” crafts a taut, haunting and touching drama that does a brilliant job of showing both the power of a mother’s love and the difficulty of re-adjusting to normal life after such a horrifying experience. In the case of young Jack, escape means adapting to a new world that is as strange to him as if he had been dropped into the surface of another planet. Brie Larson is amazing as Ma, who is a tower of strength for her son in captivity but grapples with her own issues after escape. Young Tremblay is excellent in a role that has him on screen a lot. The film is surprisingly visually arresting, and Abrahamson uses some creative effects to give us Jack’s view of his strange new world.
Exploring the readjustment and the trauma of the survivors makes this drama different from just a scary thriller, although it has its tense moments. The photography is outstanding as well, finding the space within their cramped room and the overwhelming sense of openness of the world once they escape. Larson’s and Tremblay’s fine performances are aided by good supporting performances by Joan Allen and William H. Macy, among others.
Despite the background, “Room” is a survivor story well worth seeing.
