Does Room Come Together?

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2019)

Room is half an extraordinary film and half a decent one. Both halves, in my opinion, don't properly come together to create one incredible product. The tonal and narrative shift that this film takes is jarring. Perhaps that was the intent.
We begin within the confines of a makeshift room inside of a shed. Ma and Jack are the captives of a disgusting cretin named "Old Nick". He kidnapped Ma years ago, and he subjects her to sexual slavery. I might note that the film shows us what "Old Nick" looks like, and I think that was a mistake. Why you might ask? It's because of the powerful dynamic that director Lenny Abrahamson establishes right from the very first moment we meet Ma and Jack. We see the special place they've created for themselves in spite of their circumstance. Everything about it seems ordinary, and that's because Ma makes sure that it seems that way to Jack. Jack only knows Room. It's his only base of reality. Abrahamson purposely centers the film through both points of view. In this sense, this first half of the film is extraordinary So why did we need to humanize their captor? Only a sub-human creature would do this to two innocent people. We know these people exist in real life. We choose not to recognize them in news reporting, for the mere risk of legitimizing who they are and the crimes they committed. Cinematically speaking, it would have been more powerful to have made "Old Nick" an off-screen character. It would have been more real, and more chilling.
Ma and Jake ultimately escape captivity through a crafty ruse of an emergency that includes hot water and a rug. We enter the next half of the film. Life outside of Room. Ma and Jack readjusting to the real world, and Jack's inability to cope with what the real world is. All he knows and loves is Room, and it leaves him completely detached to what is normal. Jacob Tremblay gives an incredible performance. However, the new characters that we meet in this half do not add anything new or substantial to this story. Or at least that is what it seems like, because of the drastic tonal shift this film takes. Needless to say, I wasn't as hooked into this world as I was inside of Room. I wish I was.
But warts and all, this is a well made, and extremely well acted film. Brie Larson's role of her lifetime was this one. To realize she's accomplished this and Captain Marvel before turning 30 is mind-blowing. She has not years, but decades of greatness ahead of her. The same can be said for young Jacob Tremblay. Room is, if nothing else, an effective emotional ride, which was all it ever needed to be.