Review of Room (2015) by Kashif B — 10 Apr 2016

This captivating and adorable movie is based on Emma Donoghue's 2010 award-winning novel of the same name, that had real life crime inspirations, Room's direction and screenplay is as beautiful as the breathtaking performances by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay. Director Lenny Abrahamson has derived from the source material in the best possible way.

The story is about the five-year old Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and his twenty-four-year old Ma (Brie Larson). She was abducted by a man called Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) when she was 17 and since then was locked in a room with a kitchen, toilet, bathtub and a TV. Old Nick abuses Ma on a daily basis and Jack is a result of it. Ma tries to hide the truth from Jack to maintain peace in his life, unless he is 5. Ma explains the truth to Jack and uses his help for a permanent and subtly written escape plan. Jack and Ma successfully manage to escape and now the coin flips it's sides in the movie as Jack adapts an update in his life, living in the outside world for the first time and Ma goes back to her normal life after seven years. They reunite with Ma's parents and she learns that they have been divorced and her mother has a new husband. Her father feels horrible whenever he looks at Jack and thus, decides to leave. Jack finds the outside world difficult at first and misses the room at first but later he manages to make new friends and is able to create a bond with his grandma and her new husband. Ma on the other side struggles with anger issues, is saddened due to her father's behaviour and has worries about Jack not adapting the normal life quickly. After facing a lot of problems at adapting the normal life at start, Jack and Ma finally begin living their normal life in piece and have fun in the outside world, but that does not deprive Jack from missing his early and lonely life with his mother in the Room.

The height of realism and suspense in Room is at the peak level and couldn't be any better. As suspenseful and dark it's first half is, the second half makes it a brilliant drama with adorable performance of the wonder kid Jacob Tremblay and praise-worthy acting by Brie Larson, who has been nominated for an Oscar for her acting as Jack's Ma. I'd crown Room as my personal favourite movie of this year. Room is a movie about love, life difficulties, darker sides of life and never giving up. Room answers questions that life may raise. It depicts a legit display of what life may become after all our troubles vanish and how to deal with it.