Room Analysis

Room (2015)

Directed by: Lenny Abrahamson
Written by: Emma Donoghue
Brie Larson won the Oscar for Best Actress
Streaming on Netflix.

This film is a brilliant spin-off of the whole genre of survival thrillers; this film opens with a woman and her 5-year old kid being held captive from years together, and I assumed that the whole film would be about the woman trying to save herself and the kid. But the film was focussing more on their relationship, and how the kid perceives reality because he hasn't been exposed to the real world. They manage to get out, and it's only half of the film yet and I was wondering what could happen now - the film also deals with human relationships, and what does it mean to be a good parent. At one point, a reporter asks Joy if keeping her kid with herself was good for the kid, because the kid would be better off elsewhere - you could ask this question to any parent - if they would let their kid be adopted by someone richer for the "best interests of the kid" and the answer would most probably be no. 

I absolutely loved, how Jack looks at the outer world - he looks at the sky, trees with such amusement - Jack getting opened up to the real world - it's a brilliant Truman-ish statement on the human condition, it talks about how even we need to get opened up to the real world, and realize that what we are being presented with is a fabricated version of reality. The texture, the colors, the camera being handheld, the quietness all add to a sense of mystery to the film, even when there isn't much happening and it keeps us intrigued. Jack's dialogue is brilliantly written - what he says are simple truths which would come out of a kid's mouth, but they are also deeply layered. When Joy says, 'I'm not a good enough ma' and he says, 'But you're ma' - it's about self acceptance. There are a lot more like this. Room is a riveting film, exploring a lot of themes and it's way more than just a survival drama.