Jacob Tremblay deserved the Oscar but not Brie Larson.

Rating: 7/10 (10 March 2016)

The scenario is interesting enough. A mother and her little son are imprisoned for 7 years by a man in small shed halfway down his garden. We think of the horrors experienced by similar victims publicized in the media and we are immediately intrigued to learn more about this phenomenon. But very sadly this film does not fulfill its potential. It concentrates almost entirely on what appears to be a hackneyed feminist agenda - namely the love of a mother for her son - rather than breaking new ground and explaining to us how and why such things occur. In short it leaves far more questions unanswered than it manages to solve.
There are too many absurdities to list in this production.
With only a single door between her and freedom it beggars belief that the mother was not able to force it open or make her escape at the moment it was opened. There was a skylight to the roof but in 7 years she had not the ingenuity to smash it and escape. There were various metal objects around the room and it would not have been impossible.
The man enters the room and sleeps with her regularly. Indeed their relationship seems quite calmly domestic. He does not need to force sex upon her but they simply undress and relate as if normal husband and wife. And both are able to sleep peacefully at night as if everything was normal. She complains at the food and he tells her that he has no work and struggles to keep them both. He buys presents for the boy and seems reasonable normal and decent.
It doesn't make any sense. Any man who would imprison a woman and child in a tiny shed for 7 years must be insane. And yet every action of this man is rational. And we are told nothing about the origins of the story. How did her relationship with the man ever materialize? How long after meeting did he imprison her? How did it ever happen? Instead of covering this ground we are subjected to nearly two hours of thoroughly predictable motherly behavior as if we could not imagine it ourselves. Brie Larson executes the task quite competently but this was not an Oscar winning performance. She merely left her Gucci gowns in the closet, left her make up in the drawer and acted herself. Her award was purely a boost to the underlying feminist message of the film.
But the boy was something else. Jacob Tremblay dominated the film in every way. His mood swings, his emotions, his play as a boy half his real age and his capture of our imagination in every scene was nothing short of masterful. Not only should he have been given the Oscar but his performance illustrates the need to introduce a new category in the annual ceremony: Best performance by a child actor. He certainly deserved it.