Hateful characters

Rating: 4/10 (11 September 2016)

I watched ROOM because I'm a fan of Irish director Lenny Abrahamson, that's the only reason. The premise didn't really appeal to me, although I'm aware that it's based on various true stories about long-term captivity; if I'm honest I'd rather watch a documentary about one of the cases rather than this attempted fictionalised version. And, truth be told, I didn't like ROOM very much at all. The premise is okay, but there are two problems with this. The first is the running time: at two hours, ROOM is a film which is dragged out. I couldn't help but think it would have worked better as a thirty minute short. I thought the first half was bad, but once the characters actually get out, it really stalls. I know they'll struggle to adapt to society, I can work that out for myself, but I didn't need to see all those dragged-out moments and relationships with other characters.
The second problem is that I hated the characters in this film, and not just the villains you're supposed to hate. Brie Larson gives a non-performance as the lead and the only thing they got right was in making her skin look manky. She's unsympathetic to me, a mother who seems to take a perverse delight in putting her child into danger over and over again, and I found her behaviour quite disgusting. With a proper actress giving a proper performance I might have liked this more. Even worse is the kid: a typically bratty American child whose overbearing and obnoxious attitude makes him no different from all the others we see in the movies. Why do American kids seem so selfish, self-obsessed, and prone to tantrums? Due to this child, the only thing ROOM did for me was to give me a headache. A pity, as Abrahamson's earlier movies ADAM AND PAUL and WHAT RICHARD DID were both very interesting, while this and FRANK have by comparison been chores to sit through.