A very uneasy film with excellent performances.

Rating: 6/10 (11 October 2016)

'Room' leaves a deep cutting impression and oh boy is it a tough one to review. It is a well made and expertly performed film. It also for better or worse tries to manipulate it's audience with dramatic triggers. I got mad at 'Room'. I felt it made some very predictably sensational choices in it's staging and in it's script. It's a film with contradictions. You cannot deny the talent of it's leads.
'Room' has great performances no doubt it is also one of the most disgusting examples of emotional manipulation in a movie. Sexual violence and child abuse are charged topics and 'Room' is unethical storytelling. All of the rough scenes are immediately followed by little awe filled monologues by the little boy. 'Room' overdoes it in trying to fill the story with hopeful catharsis as soon as it possibly can. It does this while still trying to go for as many over the top sad scenes as possible. We get multiple instances of dramatic moments being so dramatic we get the piercing sounds instead of trusting the actors and the dialogue.The musical score is also totally lazy and uninspired. It has that same sad little piano melody that blends together in this kind of film as if the audience were Pavlov dogs.
I say this and yet as I said earlier I have to recommend it. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are excellent in the film. They both bring more sincerity to the material than the director or screenwriter do. These performances are brave. Tremblay in particular is asked to go further than many child actors do. I wish though that the movie was more honest and straight forward. I think Brie Larson and Tremblay would be even better. They are talented enough. Their performances aren't in need of dishonest and manipulative punctuation in search of a hollow catharsis.
'Room' should be seen for it's excellent acting and as a reminder of the challenges storytelling presents. The kind of dark subject matter explored in 'Room' should linger more with a viewer. You shouldn't walk out with the rays of optimism from a monologue that makes it all better. An audience deserves more, the victims of violence deserve more.