Imagine giving birth in a shed. A locked shed. One where you’ve spent every day for the past year, never leaving. No one is present except, perhaps, the man who kidnapped you. No doctor, no nurse, no family, no drugs. I suppose I can think of more horrible things, but why would you?
Room picks up long after this moment, without ever visiting or even discussing it. It was just something on my mind when realizing that Ma (Brie Larson) and son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) live 100% of their minutes contained within a 12’ by 15’ space. The movie opens on Jack’s 5th birthday. The entirety of his world is “Room.” Always has been. He knows no other place. He has one window to the outside world – a skylight to watch rain or snow. He has no concept of what’s on the other side of the wall or that there exists another side to the wall.
Ma was abducted by “Old Nick” (Sean Bridgers) years ago. The movie suggests she was in high school at the time. While that’s not exactly a “stolen childhood” age, it sure as Hell wasn’t a “preserved childhood” age. Like Jake’s birth, the abduction, the flyers, the milk cartons, the ABPs, the worried parents are left to the imagination. It wasn’t just Ma’s life that was taken even though it’s the only life we see. And what of “Old Nick?” – the man who clearly built this shed with abduction in mind. Thinking about him installing plumbing and a reinforced metal passcode door gives me the creeps. Where did the source material for this film come from? Nick is a charmer, as you’ll find in many men who see women as acquisitions rather than people. He broke Ma’s wrist some years ago; it hasn’t healed properly. He uses electricity, supplies, and heat as weapons to discipline Ma. And five years after Jacob’s birth, “Old Nick” is finally starting to show interest in his son.
Personally, I’m pretty impressed with the shed’s integrity. I would have been whalin’ on this thing most days seeing if it would
crack. It’s not a prison, after all; it’s a shed. Did he pour concrete walls? I seriously doubt that. Still, this thing has held better than most houses.
All of this is irrelevant – Room is essentially about two things: 1) The practical notion of escape. Now that Jack is on Nick’s radar, it is time to leave the shed. Yeah, I can just picture the day when pre-teen Jack finally escapes from the shed, finally gets his first day of elementary school, and naturally wants to breast feed. You know the other parents at the school are just gonna be sayin’, “oh, he’s one of those ROOM schooled kids, ain’t he?” 2) Room is also a hateful exploration of how evil destroys lives. On that score it’s a deep film, but I was left wondering who director Lenny Abrahamson was preaching to? The voluminous “pro-abduction” crowd? Um … good luck with that.
♪There’s my world, it’s all I know
To me these walls are true
It’s my room
It’s my room
In this place I’m locked in
From birth to age-d gloom
It’s my room
It’s my room
Do my ruing and my stewing plot until I’m gray
Do my raising and my praising, ugh, Nick needs a lay♫
Rated R, 118 Minutes
D: Lenny Abrahamson
W: Emma Donoghue
Genre: Headline evil
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Abductees, maybe?
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Optimists
♪ Parody inspired by “In My Room”
