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ROOM
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson, with Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, William H. Macy, Tom McCamus, Megan Park and Amanda Brugel.
REVIEW: Todd McCarthy
IRISH director Lenny Abrahamson clearly has a penchant for confining his actors to tight spaces – Michael Fassbender within a large fake head in Frank, and now Brie Larson and her little son to a 10-by-10 shed in Room. The result is rather better this time around, as this adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel, with a script by the author herself, is involving and moderately heartwarming, even if doesn’t reach the higher levels of psychological insight and emotional profundity to which it aspires. Strong performances by Larson and young Jacob Tremblay as a mother and son held captive for years, as well as the book’s reputation, will provide a certain art house draw, more among female viewers than men.
Donoghue’s book was able to make much more of the notion that, for five-year-old Jack (Tremblay), there is no world other than his mother, the objects in the messy, one-room hut to which they’re confined and what he knows from children’s books and television. Mom Joy (Larson) maintains a certain discipline against extraordinary odds, limiting TV time, doing a bit of exercise and so on, but the circumstances are dire, and little Jack must nightly endure the sounds of Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) creeping into the shed and making weird muted noises in bed with his mother.
Entirely deglamorised and festooned with pimples and straggly hair, Larson’s Joy seems remarkably sane and steady under the depressing circumstances, a tribute to her single-minded maternal devotion, even if she sees no hope of their situation changing.
Clearly the victim of kidnapping and ongoing rape, Joy has had no luck at escape in the past; she and Jack are locked in by a door code, and the only window is a skylight. But finally, trying a bizarre scheme, there is success, which allows for a momentary deep breath.
The emotional dynamics of the second half change significantly, but are at times equally depressing, especially because some of the adult characters are so unnecessarily selfish and uncomprehending, but also because of the banality of the milieu that now surrounds Jack. Mother and son move into the home of Joy’s mother (Joan Allen).
Timid at first, Jack eventually displays the resilient coping and adaptability skills of children, which are far greater than those of grown-ups; at a certain point, Joy simply collapses.
Some tender moments eventually ensue, particularly from some nice work by Allen and McCamus; especially. On the other hand, the reaction of Macy’s character to the course of events is all but inscrutable, leaving a sour taste. – Reuters/ Hollywood Reporter