Element Pictures, No Trace Camping,
Sean Bridgers, Joan Allen, Brie Larson, William H. Macy, Jacob Tremblay
Ma (Brie Larson) was kidnapped by Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) and held hostage in a converted tool shed in the back yard of her captor. She has since had a small son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay) who has grown up in “room” which is his whole world. Only one small skylight in the ceiling is his view of the world, which he calls TV, because there are two things in his life, things in Room and unreal things everywhere else in TV. Eventually Jack is able to escape room, and his awe at a world he does not understand is incredible. This is based upon a popular novel, this is an amazing story that could have been pulled from the pages of the newspaper.
Room in an emotional roller-coaster. It has ups and downs throughout the story. I am not sure if life was harder for Jack and Ma inside the shed or out in the whole big world. There are many issues with each of the many relationships. Jack, being only 5 years old, is used to life in room, and certainly is not prepared for what’s outside. Things that he could never even imagine face him every day. But Ma has no easy time either. It’s hard for everyone to deal with all of the emotional scars in this story. Naturally all the attention at the Academy Awards was focused on Jacob Tremlay who is a very charming 7 year old who did an unbelievable job playing Jack. This is really his movie, and he was eating up every second of the attention. But this is Brie Larson’s movie as well, and her role was certainly not an easy one, and she carried it like a champ. For the largest portion of the film, it’s only Jack and Ma together in this little room. There is another role I want to mention. William H Macy plays Jack’s Grandfather and Ma’s Father. He has a very distasteful role to play as a father who doesn’t want to accept or face what has happened to his daughter, and though you will hate him for how he does it, William H Macy pulls it off very well. Though hard to understand his character, he plays it pretty well. The suspense is rather good, but the key to this film is the emotional ride we take with the characters and the way they are so well portrayed. This is an amazing film and unless you are not comfortable watching the dark and depressing situation they lived in for all those years, be sure to catch this one. Thought provoking, yet something we all have wondered about as we heard the stories of people who have been held hostage for a decade or more. Once they are freed, it’s not often we get to experience their story like we do in this fictional account of what it must be like. I recommend this one as certainly one of, if not the Best Picture of the year.
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