Another Intelligent and Honest work from Lenny Abrahamson

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2016)

At the start of the film Jack (Jacob Tremblay), the five year old protagonist and from whose perspective the story is told, has spent his entire life trapped in a ten foot by ten foot room. His mother (Brie Larson) has raised him with the belief that the room they live in is the entire world. She does so to protect him from the fact that they are prisoners, held captive by a man who uses her as a sex slave. Dealing with subject matter that could easily tip over either to unbearable bleakness or cliché melodrama, director Lenny Abrahamson, writer Emma Donoghue and the two excellent actors do an incredible job at creating a film that feels both honest and empathetic. A number of intelligent decisions in presenting the material are made, including telling the story from Jack's perspective, not making the captor a 'movie villain' and choosing to deal with the fallout of the climax, which occurs in the middle of the film. The result of these decisions is one of the rawest emotional experiences of the year and further proof that Lenny Abrahamson can do no wrong (Frank and What Richard Did).