It’s an interesting premise: a woman is kidnapped and kept in a small room. She has a son with her captor. The son has spent his entire life (5 years) inside that room. What is his life like? What is it like to live like that? These are the questions that ‘Room’ asks. You might not be asking yourself questions like these a lot, but the film proves to be an excellent study in human nature.
At the heart of any film that can be described as a case study is a performance. In this case, there are two. First of all, Jacob Tremblay is as good a child actor as you’ll ever see. He very much plays a 5 year old, full of wonder, fear and frustration at his limits. But the real highlight here is Brie Larson, who plays the mother. As you can imagine, she plays a devoted mother, who places the wellbeing of her child over all else. But she also plays a tortured soul; she was kidnapped when she was a teenager and it shows in everything she does, particularly after the two escape their captivity at the halfway point of the film. (I’d add a spoiler tag but the ads for the film make that clear going in.) So while it is slow at times, the pair’s performance makes it well worth the watch.
+3