'Room' : A whole world in a room
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| "When I was small, I only knew small things. But now I'm five, I know everything." |
Room, is a heavy, hard-hitting drama about a life created inside a shed called 'Room'. There are no words other than 'masterpiece' that could describe this film and how you become immersed into the depths and revelations of a child that knows nothing outside of a small room, which he was born into and where he and his mother are being held prisoner. I was intrigued by the trailer, yet didn't fully grasp what the theme of the story would be; initially I thought it was going to be a story based on the Joesif Fritzl case however, the writer of the novel Emma Donoghue has said in many interviews that, "the story is not based on any specific real-life case." But the trailer for Room, most definitely could not prepare you for the emotional journey this film will take you on. I have seen many criticisms of the film on how it doesn't stay closely related to the book, Tim Robey's article for The Telegraph titled 'less powerful than the book' states that the film "lacks the flooding emotional force Donoghue gave it on the page." As I have never read the book, I have to remain unbiased to this statement. However, because of the films release I am most definitely going to grab myself a copy of the book. Room explores the life of Jack, an energetic 5-year-old who is looked after by his loving and devoted mother - 'Ma'. They are trapped in a windowless, 10-by-10-foot space that Ma has euphemistically named Room. But as Jack's curiosity about their situation grows, and Ma's resilience reaches its breaking point, they enact a risky plan to escape, ultimately bringing them face-to-face with what may turn out to be the scariest thing yet: the real world.
One thing I always like to see when books are adapted into film, is when the writer of the book collaborates on the project, as I feel it gives the film more authenticity to the vision the writer had intended. Donoghue worked closely with Director Lenny Abrahamson when writing the screenplay for the film and Abrahamson's efforts to have the novel adapted to film were described by Helen Barlow in The Irish Examiner, saying:"Abrahamson was the person who put the project together after he had vigorously pursued Donoghue and ultimately taught her a thing or two about screenwriting."
Ma's character plays a huge significance to the story because, obviously her bringing Jack into the world, (disclaimer: major spoilers ahead) but also how we see her react and cope to the outside world once they escape. Whenever we hear of these sort of stories of missing people being found alive, in our heads we create a happily ever after for them and believe that everything will go back to normal in their lives though this is not always the case. The depiction of Ma's life after release is traumatic and difficult as she has to face the reality that she won't get all those years back to relive them as how she would have planned, and along with that she has to teach a five year old simple things like how to use stairs and that there is so much more to life than what was in 'Room'. There was one element to the story that I didn't quite grasp however, was the fact that Ma didn't explain to Jack her situation from the beginning, rather than lie to him about what was real and what was not. However this just adds to the hopelessness of the situation; Ma must have believed that there was never going to be a chance of her leaving 'Room' and just as we tell children to believe in Santa, she told Jack that all the pictures on the TV were fake in order to hold onto his innocence.
The story is told from the perspective of Jack, a five-year-old boy who knows nothing outside of the room and through this his perspective of life appears very oddly whimsical and intimate; for Ma, this is a prison, but for Jack, 'Room' is an entire world. An article in The New York Times alluded to this, illustrating that, "The constricted narrative and Jack’s point of view flow together. He doesn’t live in the same inhumane prison that Ma suffers in, but in a wide-open universe trembling with possibilities, with dancing lights, hand-shadow puppetry and amusements made with cardboard and eggshells." I imagine that a film with a topic like this, it would become easy to stray away from Jack being the main character and put more focus on Ma as she is the victim and the person who is suffering most because of the situation, however Room was able to hold it's focus on Jack as the protagonist through elements like the narration, the story was able to remain his. Justin Chang wrote about this subject in his article for Variety describing, "a mastery of language and interior monologue that kept us firmly locked inside the head of the story’s 5-year-old protagonist."
The cinematographer, Danny Cohen, who also worked on The Danish Girl and This is England, was able to capture so much depth in Room. As we are seeing this world through the eyes of a child who knows no better, this room is viewed as his whole world and therefore the room is made to feel as such. But to the viewer, we know that it is an enclosed and confined space therefore we can't help but feel a sense of claustrophobia. When we return to 'Room' at the end of the film, it has been stripped down and empty yet it has never felt smaller. We has just gotten used to seeing Jack adjust and adapt to the outside world and once we are brought back to 'Room' we become so much more aware of how restricted their living space was for so many years. Chang praised Cohen's work in Room in his article for Variety saying: "The film, by contrast, has no recourse but to give us an immediate view of this enclosed space, though Abrahamson and his gifted cinematographer Danny Cohen do a fine job of keeping as much concealed as possible. Lensed in dingy, muted colors and tight, widescreen closeups that deliberately frustrate our sense of space, the film places us in extremely close quarters with Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and Ma (Larson), the only other person he’s ever seen or spoken to."Due to the fact that around half of the film is set in a small shed, the use of wide angle shots and close ups (as seen in the images below), give us a conflicting feeling of claustrophobia and yet also a feeling of broadness in the small space.
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| Example of wide angle shot in Room. |
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| Example of close up shot in Room. |
The setting of the room itself was was very unique in terms of usual studio set ups. The room was comprised of one by one foot tiles which were removable allowing the illusion of confinement to remain with the actors yet also allowing every shot to be achievable from anywhere in the room. It was described as an 'inverted Rubik's cube.' Cohen himself described the set up in an article for The LA Times, by saying: "If we wanted to take a wall off, we could. But what we ended up discovering was that keeping it as a solid four-walled shed just gave it a bit more atmosphere, if you like. What we did do is you could take bits of the wall out, so you could put the camera lens on the plane of the wall, but you could actually have the body of the camera outside the shed. And we could take the floor out, if you wanted to get very low shots." This arrangement worked seamlessly as the cinematography was able to capture so much life and detail in such a small space, through using this original method.
All the performances in Room were outstanding, but the shining stars of the film were most definitely the two leads, Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson. Although this is not Tremblay's first debut into feature films; at such a young age it is genuinely astonishing to see such a meaningful and sincere performance from an actor his age. Dargis wrote in The New York Times about Tremblay's performance saying: "Together, Jack’s vision and Mr. Tremblay’s presence create a curious paradox because they help make “Room” an oddly comfortable viewing experience, especially in its first hour." No doubt he was a major find for casting as he doesn’t strike a false note as a soulful, spirited child who has been so thoroughly deprived of life’s traditional necessities and pleasures. Tremblay's spoken performance through the narration is impeccable as it gives us direct and concise glimpses into the mind of a five year old. His view is limited yet bubbly and innocent as he enthusiastically explores his understanding of his world.
Brie Larson's performance as 'Ma' is phenomenal as she really grasps that impression of numbness to the pain she’s been forced to endure since being kidnapped and held captive by a menacing man only referred to as Old Nick. When preparing for her performances on set, Larson stated that she avoided washing her face before filming, as she wanted to make it clear that she wasn't wearing makeup. Peter Bradshaw wrote in his article for The Guardian, defining Larson's performance: "She is very good at conveying the nauseous wretchedness of her life: the strain of concealing the truth from her son, or rather the strain of behaving as if the truth does not exist, since it would be impossible to explain." Larson was immaculately able to capture the essence of a woman who was robbed of her youth and desperation that situation leaves you in, along with the fact that she has given birth to a child who was the product of rape.
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| Brie Larson in Room. |
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