Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson, Sandy McMaster, Matt Gordon, Amanda Brugel, Joe Pingue, Joan Allen, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Cas Anvar, William H. Macy, Jee-Yun Lee, Randall Edwards, Justin Mader, Ola Sturik, Rodrigo Fernadez-Stoll, Rory O’ Shea, Tom McCamus, Kate Drummond, Jack Fulton.
It is hard to imagine just exactly what goes through the minds of those who put people into the position of captive, of the enslaved caged human being, it is even more troublesome on the mind to understand the feelings of the incarcerated themselves, those poor men and women who find themselves through no fault of their own in a cell with no possibility of ever being found. It is in the end all they can do to hang on to their sanity and plot over time a way out of the Room they have been placed in.
The Room really propels Brie Larson to the top ranks of her profession, a performance in which she excels and shines because she gives so much of herself to the part, even down to the feelings of isolation and despair into which such actions can be felt as alien in the hands of others, actors who can take the part on but to whom the utter dejection and worthlessness evades them. By immersing herself completely into the role, by depriving herself of contact in the lead up to making the film, Brie Larson understands what it means to bring the part of Ma/Joy to life and to make the audience truly care for her well being.
What Brie Larson also does, a hard enough task at the best of times when working with children, is to bring out the very best in her young co-star Jacob Tremblay. The psychological trauma that would have been felt by both had this happened in real life and away from the glare of the camera is etched into their faces, the features almost contorted into deeply buried rage at all times and it is a marvel of the absolute trust between these two actors that makes Room such a powerful disturbing and energy driven film.
The feelings of isolation, of confinement, of the enclosed world in which Ma and her son find themselves in is enough to send the cinema goer’s thoughts racing, of having the decency as a human being to know that the lives of those wrecked by such instances cannot be turned round instantly, that the solitude afforded in your own head is just as big a cage that they had already endured.
Room is a film bordering on the modern masterpiece, one that will leave the audience member with deep feelings of protection for the abused. A film in which the two lead performances are absolute!
Ian D. Hall