**Spoiler Alert**
Director: Lenny Abrahamson/Starring: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Sean Bridgers and Tom McCamus
The film Room is dramatized beautifully and with great power but its most fascinating character may be a little boy, who, never having seen the world in his first five years, is suddenly thrust into it with little or no preparation. What does the world look like to him; his understanding of it being solely derived from television and what his mother has told him? Director Lenny Abrahamson and Emma Donoghue, who adapted the screenplay from her own novel of the same name, attempt to answer that question and in doing so, leave us with a gripping and unforgettable story.
Without tracing the steps leading to the young woman and her son's imprisonment, we meet the mother; Joy "Ma" Newsome (Brie Larson, in an amazing, breakthrough role) and her son Jack (an equally impressive Jacob Tremblay). Confined to what we gather is a shed, no space in their tight living arrangement is wasted. As it becomes clear Ma and Jack are denied egress from their uncomfortably cramped space, we also learn how they survive when someone they refer to as Old Nick arrives periodically with food and supplies.
When the story begins, Jack rouses his mother from the bed they share to announce his birthday. In the course of the day, Ma manages to make him a cake but is unable to provide the candles Jack eagerly requests. How did Ma come to be here and who might her captor or captors be? Both questions are answered forthwith.
Sometime later we see Old Nick (Sean Bridgers)from Jack's perspective; through the closet door slats. Joy forbids her captor any visual or physical contact with her son (though it could only be his). Unable to see Nick's face, he watches as the man makes small talk with Ma while removing his clothes. That Old Nick imprisoned Ma is made fairly clear. How it happened is revealed later in a conversation between Ma and Jack.
We learn Ma has been held captive seven years, which means Jack was born in a sort of captivity. How Ma explains the world to Jack and how he makes sense of it becomes the narrative focal point. What Jack knows, including what he sees on television and who Old Nick might be, and what, if anything, lies beyond their walls, is filtered by his mother. The only view of the outside world is the skylight, which Jack stares out of with all the curiosity and wonder of a child.
As Jack's curiosity blossoms further and their health becomes more of an issue, Ma begins to see that an escape is an imperative, especially after Old Nick's violent outbursts become more frequent. But before she can hatch a plan, she explains to Jack who Old Nick really is and why they must leave Room (as Jack refers to it). Ma's explanation that there is a world outside the walls is met with disbelief and anger, as Jack rejects her descriptions as absurd fabrications. It is hard not to think about Plato's Allegory of the Cave as Ma attempts to make the concept of outside comprehensible. When Jack questions her about what is real and imaginary on television, we can see how someone ignorant of the world might not know the difference.
Their escape (no spoiler here; the trailer gives it away) is harrowing and thrilling; a cunning feat Ma devises but doesn't go entirely to plan. That the scheme involves Jack leaving Room for the first time is part of the excitement.
The rest of the film deals with the aftermath of their long incarceration as their liberation becomes a media circus and Ma is reunited with her mother Nancy (Joan Allen) and father Robert (William H. Macy). How Ma; now Joy, and Jack cope with freedom becomes the new focus. And with freedom comes an array of problems with which Joy must contend. One is her father, who is emotionally ill-equipped to deal with his daughter and grandchild and another is her mother, who she assigns some blame for her abduction. We also see the acute psychological fall-out from her ordeal. But again, it is Jack's introduction to the world that we await with bated breath. Abrahamson makes us see how strange and frightening it would be to find oneself suddenly thrust into the world and for Jack to live in an unconfined space with people other than his mother. We also feel Jack's reluctance to love and trust others. We also get a sense of what it would be like for a little boy to see a dog for the first time. Joy's most fervent desire--for Jack to be connected to the world, is an issue the film doesn't leave dangling.
I left the theater, unable to think of little else but Abrahamson's film. It is a story that stimulates many emotions; fear, dread, anger, love, elation, wonder and at the risk of sounding mawkish; hope. Though the story is Joy and Jack's; it is really in a sense his story and because Abrahamson and Donoghue make it so, the film is the richer for it.
Brie Larson has quickly become one of America's most versatile actresses. Her performance alone is reason enough to see Room but her co-star nearly steals the show. No doubt Jacob Tremblay will figure prominently in year-end award considerations.
If the film is a breakthrough opportunity for Larson, it is no less so for Abrahamson. Room is a radical departure from his amusing, oddball film Frank. Abrahamson shepherds the story through the emotional crests and troughs with such sensitivity and power; never forgetting the center of this affecting story: a five year-old boy.
Room opens near the end of a month in which a surge of excellent films made their mark. It earns its designation as being among the best of the year. It derives its power from something so seemingly elemental as the relationship of a mother and her son. I'm still thinking about it days later.
