Monday, November 23, 2015

Room

Last night I went to see the film adaptation of Emma Donoghue's best-selling novel, Room (which my book club read several years ago).  It is extraordinary!  Joy (Brie Larson), a young woman who was abducted at age 17, has been held captive in a tiny garden shed for seven years with her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay), who was fathered by her captor.  Despite the horror of her situation, she teaches Jack that the shed, which she calls Room, is the entire world and that everything in it is a friend.  When her captor reveals that he has lost his job and that he might lose his house, Joy realizes that she must take action to save Jack and tries to teach him about the outside world.  When they are rescued, Jack is completely overwhelmed by the world and everyone and everything in it and struggles with things as simple as climbing stairs.  However, as Jack becomes more and more confident in the world, Joy finds it difficult to reconcile the past seven years with her new life.   This movie is sometimes very unsettling to watch but it is also a beautiful story about a mother's love for her child (It reminded me a lot of the film Life is Beautiful where a father turns life in a concentration camp into an adventure for his son).  Both Larson and Tremblay give unbelievable performances, which are certain to be remembered during awards season, and I also really enjoyed Joan Allen's performance as Joy's mother, especially in her scenes with Jack.   The cinematography is very striking, particularly the dingy close-up shots which emphasize the claustrophobia of the shed juxtaposed with the wide and empty shots of the outside world.  While the novel is completely from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, this adaptation does a good job capturing his shifts in understanding (Donoghue also wrote the screenplay).  I would highly recommend this tense and psychological drama.

Note:  At this screening I saw the first preview for The Danish Girl.  I think I'm more excited to see it than the new Star Wars movie!

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