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Thread: Room review

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!

    Room review

    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.



    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.



    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
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  2. #2
    The book was incredibly good. I was very upset while reading it. Scared the beejebus out of me. I'm uneasy about the movie. Just the previews are freaking me out.
    Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by weezie View Post
    The book was incredibly good. I was very upset while reading it. Scared the beejebus out of me. I'm uneasy about the movie. Just the previews are freaking me out.
    I didn't realize it had been made into a movie. I agree the book is fantastic.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    The Northwest
    I've heard really good things about this movie. I am excited to see it. Looks very engaging.

  5. #5
    Took some guts to name this movie Room, given that the modern "worst movie of all time" title seems to belong to an attempt at a movie called The Room.

    - c "Oh, Hi Mark!" span

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by cspan37421 View Post
    ...- c "Oh, Hi Mark!" span
    You wag!
    Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, NC
    Just read the book this weekend. Very disturbing/interesting. Hope the movie captures what my brain imagined.

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