If you don’t like it when people see you cry, watch this movie all by yourself – that’s what I did.
Room is an independent drama film, based on the novel written by Emma Donoghue. It is about a young mother, Joy (Brie Larson) who was kidnapped at the age of 17 and kept in a soundproof shed with no windows except for a small skylight.
With her is her 5-year-old son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay) who was born in the shed as a result of Joy’s constant suffering caused by her captor.
Jack knows nothing but the shed he lives in, which he has come to call Room. The film shows a seemingly normal relationship between a young mother and her son as they do daily chores and activities inside Room but, after yet another nightly visit from her captor, Joy decides that they need to escape.
She thinks of plans to get Jack out of the shed in order for him to reach help and, ultimately, free her as well.
When they finally gain their freedom, Jack gets to experience the world – which always only consisted of Room and everything inside it.
This is a film that shows the unconditional love between a mother and a child and to what lengths a mother will go for her child as Joy makes her boy believe that Room is all that exists and it is just the two of them – nothing else was real. With this belief, Jack could manage to live a happy life in a little world called Room.
There are scenes where Jack tells the story, letting you into the mind of a young boy that was born and raised in a Room where he believed everything else is fake until he finally enters the world and learns to cope with things that are so different from what they were in Room.
I rate this movie 9/10 – It was brilliantly written with a heartfelt yet suspenseful story. The acting was great and the film had me in tears more than once.
*Room has an age restriction of 16 with strong language.
Room is available for rent at DVD4home on the corner of Retief and Govan Mbeki streets. Tel: 018 293 3895.
