“Room”

MOVIE REVIEW

Based on Emma Donoghue's 2010 novel of the same name, Room is a 2015 drama film that was directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Emma Donoghue. In it, Brie Larson plays a young lady who has been imprisoned for seven years and gave birth to her five-year-old son Jacob Tremblay while she was imprisoned. The boy gets his first taste of the outside world thanks to their escape. Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, Tom McCamus, and William H. Macy are also featured in the movie.

The movie, a joint production of Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, was filmed in Toronto, with Pinewood Toronto Studio providing the set for the movie's title. Each component of the room's set was created by the team to be detachable to allow for access by the crew. For her part, Larson looked into diet and trauma. Critics gave the movie high marks, praising Larson and Tremblay's acting and the plot in particular.

Room was hailed as one of the best movies of the year and garnered multiple nominations and awards. Room got four nominations for the 88th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Additionally, it received seven Irish Film & Television Awards, including Best Film, and nine Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture. The Best Actress Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Awards went to Larson.

Joy Newsome, 24, and her son Jack, 5, reside in a filthy shack they call "Room" in Akron, Ohio. The sole window is a skylight, and they share a bed, a bathroom with a bathtub, a television, and a basic kitchen. They are held hostage by Jack's biological father, a man they refer to as "Old Nick," who kidnapped Joy seven years ago and regularly raped her as Jack slept in the closet. Despite her melancholy and starvation, she makes an effort to maintain optimism for her son. She enables Jack to think that only the Room and its contents are real and that everything else is a figment of his imagination.

Old Nick informs Joy that due to his recent job loss, he might not be able to continue purchasing their supplies. That evening, while Old Nick is fast asleep in bed with his mother, Jack is overcome with curiosity and emerges from the closet. When Joy wakes up and witnesses their interaction, Old Nick getting smacked away, she is horrified. He turns off their heat and power as retribution. Jack's response to Joy's decision to inform him of the outside world is one of confusion, incredulity, and curiosity. She makes Jack pretend to have a fever in the hopes that Old Nick would take him to the hospital so he may call the police, but Old Nick promises to come back the next day with antibiotics.

By informing Old Nick that Jack has passed away due to his illness, Joy hopes to assist Jack in leaving the room. She tells Jack to act dead and flee to the first person he sees for assistance as she covers him in a carpet. Old Nick, falling for the trick, puts Jack in the back of his pickup truck and proceeds to drive through a residential area. Jack leaps off the truck, startling himself as he experiences the outside world for the first time, and grabs the attention of a bystander. Old Nick makes an unsuccessful attempt to drag Jack back to his truck. He leaves the area after dropping Jack.

When the police show up, they save Jack. When the police find Jack and Joy, they take them both to the hospital. The police find and detain Old Nick.

When Joy is reunited with her family, she finds out that her parents have separated and that her mother now lives with Leo. She visits her childhood home, where her mother and Leo reside, with Jack. Jack's grandfather, her father, is unable to accept him and departs. Jack has a difficult time adjusting to life in the outside world; he only speaks to his mother and expresses a wish to go back to Room. Joy, who suffers from sadness and rage, lashes out at her mother and worries about Jack's lack of engagement with "real" things.

Joy agrees to a televised interview at the family's lawyer's recommendation in order to make money, but she becomes outraged when the interviewer criticizes her choice to keep the infant Jack rather than requesting that her kidnapper send him to a hospital so he could have a shot at a normal life. She becomes so overwhelmed that she makes a suicide attempt. Jack discovers her asleep in the bathroom and she is then taken to the hospital.

Despite missing his mother, Jack is getting used to his new life. He develops a close relationship with his new family, meets Leo's dog Seamus, and befriends a young child. Jack has his grandmother cut his long hair so he may send it to Joy because he thinks it will give her the courage she needs to heal. Joy apologizes for her suicide attempt when she gets home and thanks Jack for sparing her life yet again. Joy and Jack start to enjoy life and engage in a variety of activities. They make one last, guided visit to Room at Jack's request. With the door open, Jack feels as though it has shrunk and is at a different location. He and Joy say their goodbyes to Room and leave.

WATCH THE REVIEW VIDEO FOR MORE...