Room – Film Review by Frank L

Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Writers: Emma Donoghue (novel), Emma Donoghue (screenplay)
Stars: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers

Emma Donohoe has taken her prize winning novel “Room” and written the script for this psychological drama. Ma (Brie Larsen) is kidnapped as a young girl by Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) who incarcerates her in a sound proofed garden shed with only a skylight for daylight. The lines of Oscar Wilde “That little patch of blue/ Which prisoners call the sky” from The Ballad of Reading Gaol comes to mind. Ma gives birth to Jack (Jacob Tremblay) in the shed. He however is different from a prisoner as a prisoner knows what the true extent of the “little patch blue” is. Jack does not even know there is an outside to the shed let alone the true vastness of the sky. Donohoe’s narrative is told from Jack’s perspective and addresses the problems that Ma has as Jack becomes more cognisant of his surroundings. Explanations which previously he accepted he no longer does. Ma is living in a mental and physical hell hole, created by Old Nick, in which the ultimate victim is Jack.

It would be comforting to think that the story is far-fetched and the famous neighbourly “somebody” would have noticed “something” to prevent such a situation. However the Austrian case of Josef Fritzl and the Cleveland, Ohio case of Ariel Castro demonstrate that such thinking is complacent. The kidnapping of a young attractive women and incarcerating them is not far-fetched. What makes Room so perturbing is the effect of the incarceration on the mind of a child who never has known anything else.

This film makes for uncomfortable viewing. But the sterling performances of Larsen and Tremblay are impressive, particularly Tremblay who as a seven year old is playing a five year old. The casting director has to be congratulated for such an inspired choice. The sensitive direction throughout by Abrahamson makes the viewing compelling. The consequences of Old Nick’s kidnapping are infinite and ricochet around Ma and Jack’s life having left indelible marks.