ROOM (2015) – My rating: 9/10

Room is an extraordinary story of love, devotion, strength, hope, and courage coupled with fear, uncertainty, anger, bewilderment and anxiety.  This movie will cause you to dig very deep into your soul to question the sanity of what we call normal.  A 17 year old girl is tricked into helping a man and his dog, only to be snatched and sequestered from the rest of the world for the next seven years.  Joy Newsome (Brie Lawson), now 24 and her 5 year old son Jack Newsome, (Jacob Temblay) live in a shack 10′ by 10′ where they share a bed, an old TV, a toilet, a tub, and a small table where they eat their meals.  They are undernourished, and only have a skylight for outside light.  Joy’s captor, who they call Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) has a coded lock on the outside of the door and appears several nights a week to have his way with Joy while his son sleeps in the wardrobe.  Joy has convinced her son that the only world that exist is right there in the “room” where the two of them live and the world he sees on TV only exist on TV.  Joy is truly Jack’s teacher, doctor, mother, father, friend, playmate and everything else Jack needs to survive.  Many emotions and thoughts will enter into your mind as you delve deeper into this film.  I’m trying not to say too much as Room’s plot will keep you wondering and questioning how and why, among other things.

While the subject matter will make you so angry, you might want to take a shot at this guy they call Old Nick, you will absolutely love Room for what it teaches you and for the message it sends.  Seeing how Joy and Jack cope and how the real world can often be worse than the alternative, will give you much food for thought.  Room is the most significant movie I’ve seen outside of Spotlight that really changes one’s perspective on things.  Questions come into play that you may not have thought about because a situation like this had never crossed your path.  I also think out of the many children actors I’ve seen, Jacob is among one who deserves all kinds of awards for his acting abilities.  Room is very real movie that’s very brilliantly acted with a very moving story to tell.

[ROOM is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director and Adapted Screenplay]