ROOM (2015) • Film Review ★★✩✩✩

Brie Larson’s big breakthrough is a great concept, well-acted, but with scant room for high drama.

The premise of Emma Donoghue’s novel feels torn from the pages of a tabloid — that of a young woman, kidnapped and imprisoned in a large garden shed, who gives birth to her captor’s son and raises him alongside her in isolation. Room is the Oscar-nominated adaptation from Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson (Frank), which won Brie Larson the Oscar for Best Actress, and turned Jacob Tremblay into the most talked-about child star since Haley Joel Osment saw dead people. And yet, against my expectations, Room was surprisingly dull and full of bad decisions.

I was surprised by my negative reaction to Room, because I watched it knowing it was an Oscar favourite and the two leads attracted plenty of critical praise for their work. And it’s hard to disagree that Larson’s good here, but she isn’t Oscar-worthy, and young Tremblay puts in a fine performance (undoubtedly guided by a director who works well with actors, and Larson herself). But while the concept is solid with exploration of a child’s mind denied the world beyond four walls, the way the story unfolds never feels like the best route to take.

At the risk of spoiling things, Room is two-hours long, but the ‘room’ part of the story gets resolved halfway through. The second half concerns the psychological repercussions of prolonged confinement, mainly on five-year-old Jack, whose experience of life has been so insular. I can understand why Donoghue chose to cleanly bisected the story this way, but as a film it works against us feeling even a smidgen of the claustrophobia experienced by ‘Ma’ and her son. Just as we settle into the concept of Room, we’re shoved out in the big wide world and the film becomes considerably more generic with no big surprises. I had a much deeper reaction to 10 Cloverfield Lane’s approach to making the audience feel like a prisoner with its own lead actress. Oh, and the kidnapper, “Old Nick” (Sean Bridgers), makes for one of the least compelling and inept villains of cinema history.

Room may still have worked if Abrahamson showed true skill with the camera, but this is basic and boring filmmaking. I’m staggered he was Oscar-nominated for something that barely feels cinematic, and doesn’t find a way to make the confines of the room visually interesting. There are no artistic flourishes to speak of, just efficient staging and predictable decision-making. It’s clear the director’s great at working with actors, but maybe that’s a sign he should move into theatre.

Everything that works about Room stems from Larson’s nuanced performance and the prodigious talent of newcomer Tremblay, but the wider film is found wanting when you examine how the story develops and the lack of high emotion and full-blooded drama. It’s easy to feel sympathy for the plight of mother and son, and interesting to later see them coping with the world of press attention and guilt-ridden relatives, but Room effectively ends just as it gets going… then delivers an hour-long denouement that didn’t once surprise me.

Cast & Crew

director: Lenny Abrahamson.
writer: Emma Donoghue (adapted from her novel).
starring: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy & Sean Bridgers.