Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, room movie is a wildly compelling and utterly haunting tale of a mother and her son who have spent seven years locked in a soundproof shed. As Jack grows into a precocious child, Ma (Brie Larson) makes the best of their isolated conditions and shapes the world around him so that it feels as big as room. She sings songs, plays games and crafts with him; teaches him to read; insures his safety by carefully meting out their scant food rations and tucking him behind the closed doors of a wardrobe when Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) visits them at night.
Ma and her child share a special bond that transcends time, space, even their shared captor. Their unspoken connection to each other is the driving force in this luminous and heartbreaking film, which is a rare, and perfectly humane, exploration of parental love in the face of adversity.
One of the most powerful things about room movie is how well it portrays the enduring power of human connection over the encroaching forces of nature and fate. Brie Larson is astounding as Ma, and her awe-inspiring range of emotions makes her every bit the loving and protective parent you might expect in a situation like this. She protects her son and understands that he is a captive, she struggles with anger and depression, and she tries to make him as happy as she can.
Her tenacity, and her ability to shape the world around him so that it feels as large as room, is a wonderful example of motherly instinct and self-sacrifice that goes beyond mere survival in the face of overwhelming odds. It also demonstrates that domesticity can be a source of both reassurance and disturbance, and that there is a deep underlying truth to the idea that the family unit is the safest place for us all.
Despite its gothic trappings, room movie is a deeply humane story of a mother and her son who have been confined to a small shed for years. As Jack grows into a precocious, and completely innocent, child, Ma (Brie Larson) protects him and makes the best of their isolated conditions. She sings songs, plays games and makes the best of their shared captor.
The fact that Ma and her son share a special bond that transcends time, place, even their shared captor is the driving force in this luminous and heartsick film. Her awe-inspiring range, and her ability to shape the world around Jack so that it feels as large as room, goes beyond mere survival in the face of overwhelming oddities.
She protects her son and understands that Jack is a captive, she struggles with anger, and she tries to make him as joyful as she can. She has a remarkable capacity to juggle multiple emotional and psychological states in the same scene and does so with a crystalline purity that will have you feeling everything as you watch this emotionally gripping drama.
