Uncomfortable but outstanding - a must see movie

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2016)

Actually it's hard to rate this one as in most areas it is beyond excellent but to be really critical you could pick holes in the plot. In the end I've compromised at 9/10. I must admit I tried to avoid this movie as I knew it would be a difficult watch, but ended up seeing it as someone else's choice on pay to view TV; I may have lost some of the impact of "being there" that I would have got from the big screen. By now thousands have reviewed the wonderful casting of and acting by the two leads and I concur completely. By five minutes in or less it's impossible to imagine the roles being played by anyone else. And child actor Jacob Tremblay is just astonishing as Jack, who was born in captivity so knows nothing but the claustrophobic world of "room". This really matters in the later stages when he has to cope with the wider world and we are truly drawn into his struggle to adapt and understand. As I always do, I have checked out one or two "hated it" reviews here and worry about some of those critics' ability to empathise, almost to a psychopathic degree. To me, Joy's behaviour is 100% convincing. After so long in captivity and with her child to protect you would absolutely expect her to have constructed a strategy for survival above all else, even if that means taking a submissive role with her captor. It's not like it's just her own life that's on the line if she fights back and fails.