“I instantly decided that Room would be a film I would make it my duty to see…”

About two weeks ago I was reading about news pertaining to entertainment and came across someone mentioning a film entitled ‘Room’ and stating it was the best film they had seen all year. This came as a surprise to me because I had heard nothing of the film before that moment, but I looked it up and not only was it real but it was directed by Lenny Abrahamson, who directed one of the greatest movies of 2014 in my opinion, Frank. I instantly decided that Room would be a film I would make it my duty to see. Fast forward to yesterday: I was absolutely bored out of my mind and decided that today would be the day I saw Room. I ventured out at 8:50pm, drove for 6 minutes to my local indie theatre, waited in line, and then settled into my seat waiting to see what the director had for me this time. Now apart from some fucking cunts, who were about 10 seats to my right, not shutting up for the entire length of the movie, I had a magnificent time.

Room opens up on the main character, Jack, on his 5th birthday. Over the next 10 or so minutes, you find out that Jack and his mother are being held captive in a small, soundproof room, and have been for some time. The mother is visited by her captor, Old Nick, at night on a regular basis, and through Jack’s eyes we, as an audience, get to witness what a monster this man truly is. That is one thing I absolutely love about this movie. It deals with themes that are so dark and real, but we get to experience them through a 5 year old who assumed there was no world outside of this small room he has known all of his life. This is an interesting perspective that is not often seen in film. We then witness a plan unfold in which Jack pretends to be dead, jumps out of Old Nick’s truck, and is rescued by a stranger. Just for some perspective, the last movie I watched was The Revenant and I remarked that the final fight scene was one of the most tense scenes I had witness in film. The scene where Jack escapes from Old Nick is 10 times as tense as the scene from The Revenant. In fact, every time Old Nick was on screen, I felt my body tense up in fear of what he might do to these characters I had just been introduced to.

Anyway, Jack Escapes from Old Nick because Old Nick seemingly gives up (presumably because he doesn’t want to be there when the cops arrive), gets back in his truck and drives away. The thought that instantly jumped into my mind is that Old Nick is going to kill Jack’s Mother. This is the first “gripe” I have with the movie. Old Nicks temper was portrayed as being very short in previous scenes, and even in the aforementioned scene where Jack escapes, you can hear Old Nick very clearly say “Stupid bitch!” when he realizes the plan that has been set in motion. It can be argued that Old Nick was scared of what would happen because he was out of his element. I mean, how often does one find themselves in a situation where they have to dispose of a body of a five year old boy of the woman they have kept hostage for numerous years, only to find out that the boy was merely playing dead in an attempt to warn someone that him and his mother are being held captive. It would make sense that Nick panicked, it just seemed a little out of character for him to not want to exact revenge on the woman he had previously beaten.

Anyway, once Jack and his mother are saved we are introduced to Jack’s grandparents. This portion of the movie has a wonderful cameo by William H. Macey who proves that there are no such thing as small parts, only small actors. Seriously The acting in this movie from everyone involved was phenomenal. The actors had to show a lot of subtlety and I really felt like they brought their characters to life in doing so. The cinematography was also top notch, Much like the actors, it was the subtlety of the filming that really showed. The camera angles were very real and that added to the immersion I felt in the world. One scene that stands out in particular due to cinematography was the interview scene. The mix of ‘real’ and ‘produced’ shots was great to watch. One final “problem” I have to mention is the scene where Jack and his mother go back to see room at the end of the film. The officer walks them throughout the front door of Old Nick’s House, out of the back door of Old Nick’s house, and to the garden shed where room is hidden. I found this particularly hilarious because we always see characters use the back gate to get from the street to the back yard, but instead of doing that the officer leds them through the house which literally adds nothing the the film.

Finally I want to talk about the score. The music in this film is something I instantly fell in love with, and is not something I’ll soon forget. Stephen Rennicks, who also did the music for Frank, absolutely fucking killed it in this movie. Not only did he capture the child like Wonder and innocence of Jack, But he really fucking gave it his all when the mood called for it. The final song in this film is one of the most beautiful pieces of work I have heard in a considerably long time. It’s not all that often I fall in love with a film’s score, but when I do it’s because the composer knocked it out of the fucking park.

In conclusion I would have to say that Room is the best film I have seen from 2015. And I don’t mean best as in it’s my favourite, because it’s probably not, I mean best as in apart from two very minor plot details, there is not one thing wrong with this movie. This is an absolute achievement of filmmaking, and I think everyone should see it.

I honestly give this movie a perfect score: A (5/5)