Review of Room (2015) by Sqrivener — 06 Jan 2016

The first half of the movie builds nicely, taking its time to give the audience answers to the growing mountain of questions, but this movie ultimately lets its cast down. Just when the movie seemed like it should be reaching a climax of sorts at the halfway point, I felt totally let down and manipulated as if the script had pulled a sort of dramatic bait and switch: a 5 year old boy who has never encountered a single thing beyond the confines of his 10 by 10 world and has only recently been made aware of the differences between "Room", television, and the rest of reality is in no way remotely prepared to do what he did with as much composure as he did. The whole second half of the movie was a complete farce.

Instead of deeply damaged victims with complex issues, mom and son are replaced by mildly troubled doppelgangers who just need to learn how to establish a few personal boundaries. Perhaps it works best as a book, but the movie had no real conflict or motivation in the second half, just a smattering of "issues" which all seemed neatly isolated from each other and tended to resolve themselves, each in turn, in the most banal ways. It's supposed to seem natural, but ask people to describe the plot in the second half of the movie a month after they've watched Room, and be prepared for a vague struggle to frame any sort of meaning to it. Even the surge of suspense that was resuscitated when they returned to "Room" quickly evaporated as it became clear that nothing was left behind, physically and psychologically. What a let down.

This movie just whimpers out, offering nothing but a lifeless collection of semi-dysfunctional family dynamics to serve as juxtaposition to the stark and compelling world of "Room" as described to us by the mind of a naïve, innocent five year old captive. We should have stayed in the mind of that boy and we should have been terrified and afraid for the destruction of everything he came to know and understand. Instead, he sniffled a bit about missing Room, got toys and his own bed and a friend, etc. and was all better. The End.

What a waste of the first half of a good movie.