Moving drama that earns its sentiment. Larson gives one of the best performances of the year.

Rating: 8/10 (27 October 2015)

Room couldn't be further from Lenny Abrahamson's last film Frank, a bizarre music-orientated comedy. Gone are the idiosyncrasies that made Frank wild and, for many including myself, compelling, instead we have a moving drama that earns its sentiment. The different approach is felt immediately as Abrahamson traps us with his two principle characters, Ma and Jack, in tight and sometimes oddly framed closeups. It's a somewhat clumsy execution to show the claustrophobia and intimacy Abrahamson wants to achieve as he uses Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay's faces as blank canvases, but the effect is thoroughly felt, and the film's following 30 minutes remain its best. The photography decides to take a step back, but it continues to catch that raw emotion.
The concept of a mother having raised her son in confinement then finally breaking free has many avenues to explore. Having not read Emma Donoghue's book, of whom also wrote the screenplay, I mostly expected a small scale -getting out of the eponymous room then reuniting and resolving itself there. Instead, the film goes further than I expected, getting Ma – also known as Joy, which is becoming a familiar character's name this year – and Jack back to her teenage home with her own mother. Then, in a way, it doesn't go far enough. But it's interesting to watch it play in its happy medium. It does rely on some key contrivances to get there, such as the kidnapper's wonky perception and ultimately not fighting hard enough when he could have, but that doesn't take away from the gripping escape sequence as the orchestra swells and squeezes tears from you whether you like it or not.
Room becomes a rehabilitation story as well as a discovery story, as Joy struggles to re-adapt to home life and Jack is seeing the world he only suspected but never imagined. The detail and convincing touches in Tremblay's performance are what make it special, such as the fact that Jack has never had to deal with stairs. The film is told mostly through his perspective, but it's not held as a consistent theme though that helps it be less on the nose. The first time Jack sees outside is not the first time we see outside. But it's still cathartic as we watch him finally see real trees and real telephone poles. While many can assume that actors as young as Tremblay, who was 8 when he shot Room, are coached through their roles then we can also assume he had expert teachers. He may not carry the gravity of the film throughout, but he nails the moments that count.
Brie Larson had not only shown potential but delivered the goods with 2013's Short Term 12. It's a similar environment here with devoted maternal instincts but this time it's pushed to the brink of her skills as an actress. She's drenched in this exasperation that speaks to years of exhaustion. In the tone of her primal performance, she paints a full rich portrait of Joy's whole life from her carefree teen years to her brutal capture by Old Nick when she was 17, to every little story and lesson she's told Jack. Joy's constantly revising the way she raises Jack and while there's bumps in the road, it's a complete picture of motherhood. She balances resilience and vulnerability, hope and dejection with a fine tooth comb. Most times she commands the screen and offers one of the year's best performances. It's a film about the harsh realities of growing up, operating for both of the main characters, and it's a very sensitive and emotionally potent portrayal.
Joan Allen, as Joy's mother, is heartfelt and shows unconditional love in a wonderfully nuanced way, whereas William H. Macy, Joy's father, is regretfully underused but doing the 'in over his head' thing Macy does best. From one domestic space to another, it's easy to wish it would spread its wings instead of remaining so confined. It's clear that recovery is difficult but there was a lot more ground Room could have covered. It loses a lot of steam after the escape, but at the very least it never loses my investment in the characters. It's not working on a defined timeline, or with hardly a goal in mind, so it leaves itself a little elusive. I was either ready to jump 10 years to see how they're doing or I accepted that it would simply end at a good enough point. Story problems aside, it's focusing on emotion, and while it may step into melodrama, it's always potent. It's hard to pinpoint Abrahamson's voice as a filmmaker exactly, and he might be a little overzealous with how he adapts his style so far, but he's certainly got the right edge.
8/10