Emma Donoghue wrote the novel and also the screenplay - with a lot of help from director Lenny Abrahamson, I suspect, not to mention the actors. Brie Larson plays Joy, the mother who was locked in the room at the age of 17, and Jacob Tremblay plays her 5-yr-old son Jack.
An ideal premise for a novel, I would have thought, with a limited range of elements to manipulate, and some interesting choices as to developments. I didn't think the film version really got to grips with what it might be like to be a 24-yr-old mother and 5-yr-old suddenly plunged into the real world. I was ready for it to be much stressful and dramatic than Abrahamson seemed to think it would be. I wouldn't go as far as the critic who wrote that it is 'a cowardly film about brave people', but I didn't see this movie taking a lot of risks.
William Macy's brief appearance as Joy's father seemed out of place - in a good way. He was the only actor who seemed to me to want to become really involved in the potential traumas, as a man who cannot accept what has happened to his daughter.
I have been fascinated with this situation (a child isolated from society) since I saw Werner Herzog's film about the Kaspar Hauser story. I'm going to watch Truffaut's Wild Child as soon as the DVD arrives. I hope there will some interest in comparing the films.
Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)
reviews | Garry Gillard | New: 1 March, 2017 | Now: 2 March, 2017