Beautiful film, but different from the book

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2016)

Overall, this is a beautiful film, driven by a brilliant story and outstanding performances from Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.
Larson is hugely deserving of her Golden Globe win, and I hope to see it replicated in the BAFTAs and Oscars. Conversely, Tremblay's lack of Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations is mad, his performance was one of the best parts of the movie! How does an 8-year-old even begin to portray the role of a 5-year-old who has only ever lived in a tiny room, while his mother is routinely abused by their captor, before being expelled into a harsh and alien world? I saw a quote from a review that said Tremblay's performance is "a revelation" and I couldn't agree more!
However, I was surprised to find that the author, Emma Donoghue had also written the screenplay and yet changed so much from the original text! I'm not naive that films can't be rigidly faithful as certain things do not translate. For example, one of the most innovative elements of the book is that it's told completely from Jack's point of view, so work needed to be done to map that onto a film script, and naturally some changes would have been needed.
But why change things like names? Officer Oh became Officer Parker for example. It's a trivial change, but having read the book only recently, it jarred and seemed unnecessary.
Then there were the larger changes that undermined some of the story's power. Where Ma and Jack originally stayed in the hospital for what felt like a much longer time (admittedly from Jack's perspective), and greater care was taken not to expose Jack to the world before his immune system was ready, the film seemed to accelerate his transition. The passages in the hospital highlighted the desperate contradiction between Ma's need to heal and Jack's need to always be near her, which the film seemed to gloss over. Overall, the speed at which Ma and Jack progressed from escaping Room, through a brief hospital stay, her suicide attempt and their eventual adjustment to life Outside, undermined the complex emotional and physical struggle for both characters that Donoghue describes in the book.
All that said, it was still an excellent film. Horrifying subject matter, told in a way that was moving and funny without being trite or disrespectful. If I hadn't read the book, I would probably have rated it a 9.
Ardent lovers of the original book might find themselves a little disappointed in places, but I'd recommend it to all.