dismal attempt at tugging on heart-strings

Rating: 3/10 (7 March 2018)

Considering the horrific subject matter, this movie managed to come over as glossy, superficial, and above all it was determined to be emotionally manipulative at every opportunity. I'm sorry but since when was kidnap, imprisonment and prolonged abuse as cosy and sentimental as this? In what way does this movie attempt to truly confront its audience with the raw, vile atrocity of its subject matter? It didn't need to be ultra-explicit visually, but 'Room' was presented more like a hankies-at-the-ready emo weepfest than a genuinely harrowing study in cruelty and repression. As for the 2nd half of the movie, the attempts at scenes of angsty/shouty family drama and turmoil were from the straight-to-DVD standard school of acting. All in all a bland, boring and forgettable excercise in hollywood 'realism'.