ROOM (2015), Brie Larson Totally Deserve Her Oscar

I've just watched ROOM (2015) because there was literally horde of news that its lead actress, Brie Larson won her Oscar for her role here. Thanks god, it still aired on cinema. My opinion: man, Larson do deserve her Oscar. ROOM is so impactfull that it's kinda reminded me of the reason why I love watching movie in the first place. Here's why:

The narative
The story, damn. It's intense and rich at the same time. Both highly suspenseful and deeply emotional, ROOM is a unique and touching exploration of the boundless love between a mother and her child, following 5 years old Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and his Ma (Brie Larson) that escape from the enclosed surroundings that Jack has known his entire life.

I'm amazed
that the story didn't end when the pair escaped. Because usually Hollywood tends to do that for the survival genre film (cough, Captain Phillips). The story then developed to the post-Room experience where the mother and son struggle to get their feet on the ground. Abduction victim should not only be told in the survival story alone, but also in their struggle to sort out their live back. Especially on this film where the character is a 7 years prisoner and her 5 years old son who never get to see the world outside.

Too bad, it was poorly executed. In fact, the post-Room scenes seem a bit forceful, both in script and acting. There isn't enough nuance about Joy's PSTD; all the dialogue is too on-the-nose, so both Larson and Joan Allen end up just yelling in one note. There are some weird must-happens in the story too. I mean, what would compel the reporter to ask Joy why she didn't just have Old Nick take baby Jack to a hospital so that he may have a normal life? That would take an inordinate amount of trust in the abuser. And old Nick himself must either be "kind" or dumb enough to not go home right away to punish his prisoner-wife after Jack escaped. The audience will be able to handle more atrocity. I mean, the story itself is already brutal enough. And wouldn't Joy's friends have been affected by her disappearance and be interested/happy to know that she made it out alive?

For some people, the problem with the film is that the second halfs is terrible, but rather than that, i'd say that the first 50 minutes are so amazing that the second halfs doesn't live up to it.

The characters
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay really carry this movie as mother and son who are imprisoned in a garden shed for seven (and five) years (respectively). Joy's days are spent creating as normal of a childhood as she can for her son Jack - full of daydreams and exercise and crafts - so that at night when Old Nick comes for his conjugal visit, Jack would never think that hiding in the wardrobe is out of the ordinary. Now that he has turned five years old, Joy deems him old enough to learn the truth and plan their escape. And what a riveting escape it is. I've laughed at movies, cried at movies, jumped out of my seat and yelped at movies, but never has my heart raced so fast at a movie as when Jack struggles to disentangle himself from the carpet and scrabbles out of this moving, rumbling behemoth into a loud, populated, alien world he has never seen, much less imagined before.

Brie Larson is pretty dang good, infusing this young abuse victim with motherly patience and motherly ferocity, but I fell in love with nine-year-old Jacob Tremblay who are so utterly natural as Jack, expressing shades of joy, anger, amusement, disgust, doubt, fear, and working that raggedy mop of hair to boot.

Truly, the lesson I learned from this movie as a filmmaker is: spend time on choosing the best talent, and to develop the deeper story. Thank you ROOM, bye ROOM.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes