“Room” achieves what independent films do best; it provides good actors with great material and uses a subtle approach to produce a deeper meaning. Given its sensational subject matter, “Room’s” subjectively-viewed character study gives the film a depth and strength lacking in studio movies. In its story of Joy (Brie Larson), a 24-year old girl trying to escape her 7-year kidnapped-confined prison with her 5-year old son, Jack (fathered by her captor), “Room” gives its audience a tense build to their literal breakout while providing a figurative breakout in the acting performance of Jacob Tremblay as Jack.
As “Room” begins, we meet Joy and Jack in their small, sparse room. Though appearing to live in squalor, Jack is happy and circles the tiny room wishing different fixtures “good morning” (“good morning, sink,” “good morning, toilet,” etc.). It is a good morning for Jack; it’s his 5th birthday. Matching Jack’s buoyant demeanor, Joy has a surprise for Jack- she’s making him a birthday cake (having gotten the ingredients from her captor, Nick (Sean Bridgers), in her requested provisions). Having watched a lot of television from an old set in their room, Jack asks why there are no candles on the cake. Hiding the truth of their predicament, Joy dodges the question to Jack’s dismay: how can she tell her son the world he knows as ‘room’ is actually a ‘prison,’ the real world just outside of their electronically-code padlocked and soundproofed shed? Upon one of Nick’s conjugal visits with Joy, Jack is sent to bed within a wardrobe closet and Joy learns that Nick has lost his job. When the power to their room is shut off (the cold air making Jack’s breath visible enough for him to tell his mother that he’s a dragon), Joy knows they must try to escape. Feigning a fever-induced illness, Jack is coached by Joy on how to alert the outside world of their plight once she gets Nick to take him to a hospital. After a failed escape attempt some time before, can Joy now employ Jack to succeed where she herself could not?
It’s not a spoiler to say that Joy and Jack do escape, but the beauty of a film like “Room” is that it deftly shows the hard assimilation back into the outside world after imprisonment. Not unlike what was portrayed in “The Shawshank Redemption” with Brooks (James Whitmore, Jr.) preferring suicide over living as a free man, “Room” shows the mental breakdown in adjusting to real life. Larson, one of our best young actresses noted more for her comedic roles (21 Jump Street,” “Trainwreck”) has a great strength that makes her emotional breakdowns in the film all the more moving. If you’ve seen Larson’s performance in 2013’s “Short Term 12,” you know what I’m talking about (if you haven’t, you should). Larson is cut from the same smart, strong cloth that produced actresses like Gena Rowlands and Anne Bancroft.
Apart from the smart casting of Larson as Joy, “Room” features another smart casting choice in Joan Allen as Joy’s mother. Allen, whose Oscar-nominated work in “The Contender,” “The Crucible,” and “Nixon” showed her dexterity in playing strong and formidable characters, gives her role the right mix of the pleasant exterior whose interior battles the optimistic and hopeful view she exudes. Allen and Larson, are a perfect mother-daughter combo- both actresses bring an unwavering and unsympathetic realism and intelligence to their roles.
Intelligent acting is also found in Jacob Tremblay as Jack; he’s where the darkness of “Room” finds its light. At 9-years old, in only his third feature film, Tremblay doesn’t deliver a false note in his performance. While many people may view child actors as trained monkeys who can appear intelligent if the script is intelligently written, I’d disagree- I think only smart actors can convincingly play smart characters. In the scenes between Tremblay and Larson, as Joy instructs Jack in the differences between the real world versus the make-believe of T.V., there’s such an engaging quality in Tremblay’s portrayal of Jack that his thirst for knowledge and understanding make the intelligence and quick-witted planning of their escape completely plausible for Jack to successfully execute. Also, in Jack’s assimilation into the real world, these qualities come into bigger play by not having Jack’s character revert back into some feral-like state of disassociation or catatonic culture shock outside the small confines of the world he called ‘room.’ Not many young actors have the fortitude to build such a believably intelligent character born from a simplistic and sheltered upbringing to serve as his mother’s proxy savior, but Tremblay does- it’s a performance worth a supporting actor Oscar nod.
Through excellent acting and a well-written script, “Room” succeeds by tempering down its sensational nature with a smart, subjective viewpoint. In breaking down a seemingly-confining walled barrier, “Room” gives the viewer what makes any film endearing- a universal message of unwavering hope.