Best Movie of the Year

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2016)

Having read Emma Donoghue's novel ROOM, I was looking forward to the film adaptation. I suspect she could have sold the film rights to a big name director like Peter Jackson or Steven Spielberg. We would have been treated to a talking egg snake or an animated plant. Sometimes too much money doesn't make a better film. ROOM is proof of that. ROOM is proof that less is way more, that subtlety and nuance is far more valuable than every special effect that money can buy. Ms. Donoghue was protective of her work and it paid off. She went with a director who understood the novel and who was willing to collaborate with the author. Director Lenny Abrahamson has brought ROOM beautifully to life on the screen. The director is true to the feel of the novel. Donoghue has done a terrific job on the screenplay. And the two lead actors totally inhabit Ma and Jack. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay deserve every great review, every award they can get. Tremblay isn't just a talented child actor. He's a talented actor. He's extraordinary, present in every moment he's on screen which is pretty much every scene of the movie. Larson shows us so many layers of Ma, a young woman who is trapped and needs her young son to help her win their freedom. We feel her love for her son, her fear for his future, her frustrations and her battles with the after shocks of life in Room. ROOM is a beautiful film about the life saving love a mother has for her child and his love for her. The only thing I wish was that ROOM had gotten wider distribution. It's a film that is a must see.