Make space in your life (and in your heart) for "Room".

Rating: 9/10 (6 December 2015)

Which of the following situations would you find the most traumatic? (1) You are kidnapped, removed from everyone and everything you know and love, never knowing if you will ever be free again. (2) You are born into a captivity in which you know hardly anything about what most people take for granted as "the world" and then are suddenly thrust into that world with almost no understanding of what you're seeing, what to do or how to behave. Stop. Think about it. Either situation would be a horribly upsetting and disorienting to experience. We see both situations play out in the fictional drama "Room" (R, 1:58). Although the film is not based on any specific real-life story, it does have a strong basis in reality – in the cases that we occasionally see on the news or in a true-crime TV drama. A young woman is taken captive by a monstrous person who holds her for years against her will. In some cases, innocent children are born into such situations, knowing nothing but confinement, with only a mother's love to depend on.
Joy Newsome (Brie Larson) was seventeen when a man who claimed that he needed help with a sick dog abducted Joy and imprisoned her in the garden shed in his back yard. The man (Sean Bridgers), whose name Joy didn't know (simply referring to him as "Old Nick") kept Joy as a sex slave, bringing her just enough food and other essentials to survive. He brought her supplies once a week, but visited her for sex every night. Eventually, Old Nick's ongoing rape of Joy produced a baby boy. Joy named him Jack. Jack only knows Joy as "Ma". He has never even seen Old Nick. At a set time every night, Joy sends Jack to sleep on the floor of the wardrobe in the corner of the room. Old Nick punches a code into the door's electronic lock. He enters. He does "his business" and leaves. Jack is now free to climb into bed with Ma.
The days belong to Joy and Jack (Jacob Tremblay). He's now five years old. He has never had a haircut, never seen a doctor and never left Room. The wardrobe where he sleeps when Old Nick comes calling, Ma's bed, a toilet, bathtub, sink, toaster oven, small table and old television is all Jack has ever known. As far as he knows, the world he sees on TV is all made up and the small skylight in the roof of the shed is outer space. To Jack, there simply is nothing else but Room, the mysterious voice of Old Nick, and Ma. For her part, Joy does all she can for Jack. She "cooks" the meager rations that Old Nick brings and she breastfeeds Jack. She's his teacher, his playmate, his protector and, basically the only person who exists.
As hard as Joy works to make a life for her and Jack in Room, their situation is starting to change, calling their long-term survival into question. Joy has tried to escape before, but it becomes clear to her that she has to try again. Maybe Jack is now old enough to help – if she can get him to understand her plan. It isn't a spoiler to reveal that Joy's escape plan works, because that is what the second half of this movie is about. Joy is reunited with her mother (Joan Allen) and father (William H. Macy), who are now divorced. Joy and Jack move in with her mother and her mother's boyfriend (Tom McCamus) who do their best to help Joy and Jack adjust to their newfound freedom, with all that means for each of them.
These adjustments aren't be easy. Jack has to learn everything that you and I take for granted about our world. Joy has to try to get past the emotional trauma of seven years of captivity and having raised a son in that environment. Then, of course, there are certain legal questions that a family lawyer is now there to handle and the media circus that naturally accompanies such stories in real life. This film doesn't dwell on the legal or public aspects of this case, but those elements are there in the background, even while this dramatically changed family focuses on finding a way to forge fresh bonds and move forward in the most difficult of situations.
"Room" is as remarkable as the story it portrays. Basing the film on the 2010 novel by Emma Donoghue (who also wrote the screenplay) frees the plot to explore a wide variety of issues without being confined to the details of one specific real-life case. Telling the story through Jack's eyes (complete with a judicious use of well-written narration by the boy) helps us to understand the wide ranging implications of such an experience for Jack, his mother and his newfound family. Director Lenny Abrahamson takes full advantage of these story-telling opportunities with his use of camera angles and the markedly different tone in the movie's very different halves. Topping it all off are exceptionally affecting performances by all the main characters – especially Larson and Tremblay. Although the pacing of the film sometimes lags unnecessarily, there is no criticizing this film's emotional impact and the importance of the lessons that it teaches its audience. I have no room to give this film anything less than an "A".