JasonEvans
10-22-2015, 04:47 PM
Last night I saw one of the most amazing movies of my life -- Room.
This film is not for everyone. I can imagine people who get emotional about parenting and child endangerment being overwrought watching it. The story, in case you have not heard, involves a 17-year-old girl (played by Brie Larson) who gets kidnapped by a rapist. He forces her to live in a soundproof shed behind his house and he rapes her pretty much every night (she eventually stops resisting). Eventually, she has a child, Jack (played by newcomer Jacob Tremblay) that she raises inside the tiny, claustrophobic room. There are no windows, only a small skylight. The movie begins on the 5th birthday of the child (which is the 7th year the mother is in captivity).
Room is a little slow at times (as it should be, the life of the mother and child must be terribly boring existing solely in what appears to be a 14x14 world), but it features what may be the greatest acting performance by a child actor that I have ever seen. We experience the entire film through Jack's eyes, which is almost distracting at times because there are key moments and explanations that happen out of Jack's earshot and we are not allowed to see/hear them because the viewer only knows what Jack knows. I honestly don't know how 8-year-old Jacob Tremblay pulled off this role without making it sappy or cloying. I am stunned that the writer/director felt comfortable putting their film in the hands of such a young child.
https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/room.jpg?w=970
I just cannot recall someone so young being this important and this good in a film. The gold standards for child acting are stuff like Jodie Foster (12) in Taxi Driver, Haley Joel Osment (11) in the Sixth Sense, Anna Paquin in The Piano (11), and Abagail Breslin (10) in Little Miss Sunshine. But there's a huge difference in a kid of 10, 11, or 12 and an 8 year old. Plus, HJO is the only one of those who had anywhere close to as large a role as Tremblay does in this film. I mean, Foster is a small supporting character in Taxi Driver. Tremblay is front and center in every single scene in the movie... every one! The closest I can come is Henry Thomas (10) in ET... but he was 10 at the time, not 8!! The youngest Oscar of all time went to Tatum O'Neal for Paper Moon when she was 10. but she was acting alongside her father in every single scene... and she was 10! What Tremblay does at age 8 is beyond incredible.
I cannot say the film is the best time I have had at the movies -- it ain't a feel-good flick, that's for sure -- and there are things about it that bugged me a bit (sorta like Boyhood, I was frustrated by some of the pacing/storytelling choices made by the director). There was one particular scene involving a TV reporter that was so unrealistic that it pulled me right out of the film and had me feeling angry and distracted for a good 5 minutes, which was really unfortunate. But when Room ended I found myself slack-jawed at the emotional experience of watching this film. I know most critics are going ga-ga for Brie Larson, and she is wonderful, but to me it was Tremblay who absolutely slayed the craft of acting in this movie.
http://www.clickonline.com/Common/Helper/DownloadImage.Ashx?ImageId=321951&ImageSize=Medium&Key=7e8209369366a061f0c03d13867845075d47cb2e
Go see it, it will be one of the most emotional film experiences you have ever had -- especially if you are a parent.
-Jason "this flick is getting a slow roll-out across the country, so it may still be weeks away from coming to your town... I also may be overrating it a little bit as I am still emotional from viewing it last night" Evans
This film is not for everyone. I can imagine people who get emotional about parenting and child endangerment being overwrought watching it. The story, in case you have not heard, involves a 17-year-old girl (played by Brie Larson) who gets kidnapped by a rapist. He forces her to live in a soundproof shed behind his house and he rapes her pretty much every night (she eventually stops resisting). Eventually, she has a child, Jack (played by newcomer Jacob Tremblay) that she raises inside the tiny, claustrophobic room. There are no windows, only a small skylight. The movie begins on the 5th birthday of the child (which is the 7th year the mother is in captivity).
Room is a little slow at times (as it should be, the life of the mother and child must be terribly boring existing solely in what appears to be a 14x14 world), but it features what may be the greatest acting performance by a child actor that I have ever seen. We experience the entire film through Jack's eyes, which is almost distracting at times because there are key moments and explanations that happen out of Jack's earshot and we are not allowed to see/hear them because the viewer only knows what Jack knows. I honestly don't know how 8-year-old Jacob Tremblay pulled off this role without making it sappy or cloying. I am stunned that the writer/director felt comfortable putting their film in the hands of such a young child.
https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/room.jpg?w=970
I just cannot recall someone so young being this important and this good in a film. The gold standards for child acting are stuff like Jodie Foster (12) in Taxi Driver, Haley Joel Osment (11) in the Sixth Sense, Anna Paquin in The Piano (11), and Abagail Breslin (10) in Little Miss Sunshine. But there's a huge difference in a kid of 10, 11, or 12 and an 8 year old. Plus, HJO is the only one of those who had anywhere close to as large a role as Tremblay does in this film. I mean, Foster is a small supporting character in Taxi Driver. Tremblay is front and center in every single scene in the movie... every one! The closest I can come is Henry Thomas (10) in ET... but he was 10 at the time, not 8!! The youngest Oscar of all time went to Tatum O'Neal for Paper Moon when she was 10. but she was acting alongside her father in every single scene... and she was 10! What Tremblay does at age 8 is beyond incredible.
I cannot say the film is the best time I have had at the movies -- it ain't a feel-good flick, that's for sure -- and there are things about it that bugged me a bit (sorta like Boyhood, I was frustrated by some of the pacing/storytelling choices made by the director). There was one particular scene involving a TV reporter that was so unrealistic that it pulled me right out of the film and had me feeling angry and distracted for a good 5 minutes, which was really unfortunate. But when Room ended I found myself slack-jawed at the emotional experience of watching this film. I know most critics are going ga-ga for Brie Larson, and she is wonderful, but to me it was Tremblay who absolutely slayed the craft of acting in this movie.
http://www.clickonline.com/Common/Helper/DownloadImage.Ashx?ImageId=321951&ImageSize=Medium&Key=7e8209369366a061f0c03d13867845075d47cb2e
Go see it, it will be one of the most emotional film experiences you have ever had -- especially if you are a parent.
-Jason "this flick is getting a slow roll-out across the country, so it may still be weeks away from coming to your town... I also may be overrating it a little bit as I am still emotional from viewing it last night" Evans