Room – worthy Oscar contender

I’ve seen every Lenny Abrahamson film in the cinema and I can remember twelve years ago sitting in a cinema in Dublin watching Adam & Paul and thinking “take note – this man is no flash in the pan.” After the excellent Garage, a film that deserves to be listed among the greatest of all time, it was confirmed. Abrahamson never got ahead of himself though, even 2015’s Frank was still quite an independent film, much the same as Room, which although an Oscar-contender it feels more like an exceptionally well made and acted indie film that anything Hollywood could possibly make.

Based somewhat on the Fritzl case, Ma (Brie Larson) is trapped in a soundproofed shed where she is visited nightly by her captor Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) to give her supplies and rape her before leaving and locking the door behind him. She’s not alone though, she has a five-year-old son named Jack (Jacob Tremblay) by Old Nick and despite their bleak situation she is determined to shelter him from their harsh reality. Jack has never seen outside and is perfectly content in “Room”, watching the magic people on TV unaware of anything else. Ma is getting concerned though and needs to get her and Jack out before their mental and physical health is damaged. She hatches a plan, but will it work? And if it does how will Jack cope outside of “Room”?

It’s all excellent. The acting, the music, the lighting, everything. There is nothing to fault here. Abrahamson knows how to get amazing performances out of his cast and Room is him doing that on an Oscar scale. A lot of well-deserved attention has been put on Brie and rightly so, that Oscar should be hers. Tremblay is excellent too, with one of the best child performances seen on screen. For me the real exception was Joan Allen as Ma’s mother. It’s short and subtle but she makes a massive impact in a film already overridden with great performances.

It’s a technical challenge to convey a film as claustrophobic as Room, giving both happy and sad emotions, as well as terror, into one small area. Abrahamson uses excellent camera work and music to tackle this and really succeeds. We understand Ma’s terror of Room but also Jack’s feelings of safeness.

It’s never horrific, which some people may think is Abrahamson cowering away from the reality of the situation. There is no brutal rape scenes, no beating, only silhouettes seen through a wardrobe. This isn’t a story about that, this is a story about Jack, and we see everything through his eyes. Like Ma protects Jack from the true horrors so we don’t see them, but being an audience we are aware, our brains connect, Abrhamason respects they will.

Absolutely excellent, more Abrahamson films please, right now.

5 out of 5