Poses questions

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2016)

ROOM:  poses an interesting question: How does a five year old boy, Jack (an excellent Jacob Tremblay) comprehend and react to a world he's never seen? He and his mother have been held captive in a 10 X 12 shed with a skylight his entire life. His only contact with the outside world is a distorted picture on an old TV and the sky. His only human contact is his captor and his mother who's been held for seven years. He perceives most things as a two dimensional TV image. She must help him differentiate between what is real and what is fantasy. He's never seen a tree, a car or a building. He's a healthy, bright kid who must sleep in a wardrobe while his captor visits nightly to rape his mother (Brie Larson). She devises a successful plan to help them escape. The always wonderful Joan Allen plays his maternal grandmother and with gentle love and encouragement, helps Jack find his way in a very strange world. He's never seen stairs Larson is excellent as the mom. Room, is disturbing to say the least but director Lenny Abrahamson lets the story unfold at a nice pace and lets us see the desperation of their situation without letting it get maudlin. Score: 8. GO.