Captured and Taken !

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2020)

In our culture and era we live in, we hear about rape and kidnappings way too often. I bet anyone I would ask would know of someone whos been sexually harassed or has been themselves. This is a sad and harsh reality we live in but nobody knows what happens behind the scenes and "Room" really encaptures what happens in real life. This film is very raw and hard to watch at times. But that's honestly why I liked it so much. The director of "Room", Lenny Abrahanson did a great job at capturing realism in his film and didn't sugar coat it.
This film starts in 'room' where Ma (Brie Larson) and her five year old son Jack, (Jacob Trebley). Jack calmly talks about how Ma would cry and watch tv like a zombie all day before Jack "zoomed down from heaven through skylight, into room" (1:44). When Jack turns five, they bake a cake and talk about what a big boy he is now that he's five. Ma has decides to tell him the truth about why they are stuck in 'room' and that there's a whole world outside of room that jack has never seen before. Now that he's old, she trusts that he's ready for the truth. After telling him this, he is in disbelief and does not believe what she's saying for one second. Jack has been comfortable in 'room' since the beginning and has trouble understanding why ma would want to leave. Jack enjoys his routine and his "friends" there ( he was friends with a mouse who came in occasionally, the rug, the table, the bath etc). Ma decides they were getting out and to do that she thought she would pretend jack had died from being so sick so he could be taken outside of room and could run to someone, anyone for help and to tell the police the situation. Even after the escape however, things didn't go as smoothly as one may think for being released from a seven year prison sentence.
This film really caught my eye considering the context. This is a dark film that shows a very raw description of what it could be like to be captured and held by a sick old man. Going into the film, I thought I knew how it would go. Show their life in 'room', have a few failed escape attempts, finally get out, then reunite with family. I was happily surprised with how much different the film actually was from what I expected. Lenny Abrahanson did a well job on making the film realistic as well as making it unexpected. The camera angles used in the making of the film truly enhanced the darkness of the film. The lighting also went along with camera angles, since they only had one window, which was a skylight they had to use that as basically their only light source besides some lamps and the lighting helped portray the eeriness of the film. Especially once they finally get out into the world again, it is immensely bright. Jack, (Jacob Trebley) is a very convincing five year old boy in this film. He is a main character and his acting really helped convince the audience of his fear and sadness. Ma, (Brie Larson) also is very key in making this a convincing film. Ma has to portray someone who has been locked up by a sick man for seven years and has to show the pain through her actions and words and I believe she does an excellent job with that in this film. However, one thing I didn't enjoy in this film was that it lacked voicing of what Ma and Jack were feeling after they got out. There was some emotion showed but Ma didn't speak to it as much as I thought she would have. Jack's only true emotion after the escape, was that he missed 'room' and wanted to go back. He quickly got over that and became a much happier boy but he also didn't comprehend what he and his mother went through. Ma did show some feelings after escaping, through her actions. She tries to end her life since she knows now that Jack can be cared for. But it took her some realizing that she needed to be on this earth and take care of her son.
This heart breaking story thankfully turns into a very powerful and strong message. I would recommend this to anyone who likes dark thrillers or if you enjoy films based off real life events then I would definitely suggest this for you. I give "Room" an overall rating of 5/5.