Excellent acting and an expressive eye help make the film a moving experience...

Rating: 6/10 (26 November 2016)

The first 45 minutes or so of "Room" are awful to sit through. While those minutes are crucial to the rest of the story, seeing how a grown woman and her five-year-old son survive while locked inside a 10ft. by 10ft. outdoor shed is a tough task for any viewer. Director Lenny Abrahamson and screenwriter Emma Donoghue, adapting her own novel, free the captives (and the audience) before too long--and yet, mother and son's new life in the suburbs is nearly as uninteresting as life in that shed (I'm not sure this is intentional). Thankfully, Brie Larson's Oscar-winning performance as the exhausted, anxious (and guilt-ridden) single mom facing a strange new world is riveting on occasion, while the (not implausible) center of the story--an awakening, if you will--is emotional, if never quite fascinating. As an acting exercise for this cast, the material must have looked like a godsend. Abrahamson is careful with his actors; he allows them to think and breathe and hurt and heal. But all this drama could take its toll on an impatient audience, so personal judgment will have to dictate whether or not the movie is a success. **1/2 from ****