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Room review
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Review of Room

"Room" is the story of a captive woman doing her best to maintain her child's innocence and give him a sense of normalcy in spite of the dire circumstances they are in. The titular room and other items and things are subject to personification because of the child's mother's attempts to create an illusory world in a hopeless situation. As a result simple things to the casual viewer take on an added weight and meaning as the film progresses. This alone would make for a riveting subject matter but this film is far more ambitious in it's undertaking.

Indeed, an hour into the proceedings the film resolves the superficial side of this dilemma, after a heartbreaking peak into the lives of the two leads (an excellent Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay), only to show us the true psychological fallout that a situation like this would leave in its wake. This is not a true crime drama but an incisive view into the experience of the victims, during and after a crisis. Relief is but an illusion even as their figurative shackles are broken and the weight of a reality that the child had been spared bears down on him while simultaneously hobbling his mother who now feels out of place in a world that moved on without her.

The long reach and strong hold of a life-changing experience is gut-wrenchingly portrayed and not a single character's reactions are sugar-coated. Frustration and empathy often cross paths in the viewer's mind as you make this journey with them but the real stroke of genius is that the filmmaker chose to show all this through the eyes of the child. We are made privy to only the things he sees and hears and left to field the responses and reactions as he does. The results are heartrending at times and downright frightening at others as you experience the aftereffects of the way he was raised and see the only anchor he's known, his mother, succumb to them as well.

Characters drive this moving story and the formidable cast does an amazing job of communicating the desperation, the love, the disgust, and all other emotions that crop up along the way as they seek to move on from a terrible situation into something akin to the status quo.

"Room" is riveting and it never flinches. It can break your heart or mend it; bring you to your knees or inspire from one moment to the next. It is an emotional roller coaster, for sure, but one wholly worth your time. It achieves in a clear cut depiction of real world horror what no fantastical flight of fancy could ever aspire to do. "Room" is an important film but, more than that, it is a brilliant one. Highly recommended.
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Added by Movie Maniac
5 years ago on 25 August 2018 05:57