ROOM : Monday 25th January 2016.

'ROOM' which I saw this week, is likely to be as much an emotional rollercoaster ride, a tear jerker and heart wrenching film as any you're likely to see this year that could easily be based on real life events,and is sure to leave its mark on your movie going memory long after the credits have rolled. Already doing very well around the awards circuit with 54 wins and another 98 nominations including four Oscar nominations pending for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress for Brie Larson who has already scooped the Golden Globe for her performance, this film is directed by Lenny Abrahamson and is based on the book of the same name by Emma Donoghue. 'Room' had its world wide premier at the Telluride Film Festival in early September last year and a limited US release in mid-October and reaches our shores this week. Made for just US$6M it has so far grossed US$9M and also stars Joan Allen, William H. Macy, and young Jacob Tremblay who is also receiving much awards attention as the young son to Brie Larson's mother character.

The story here centres around Joy Newsome (Brie Larson) known to her young five year old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) as Ma. Joy would be in her mid-twenties and we quickly learn that for the last seven years she has been held captive in a room that measures no more than three metres square. It is a squalid room and this is the world for Ma and young Jack who was fathered by Joy's captor known only as Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) who repeatedly visits her for sex whilst Jack sleeps in the wardrobe. The room has very basic fittings which the two must share - a bath, a sink, a table and two chairs, a bed, a television, and a rudimentary kitchenette. There are four solid walls and the roof with a skylight window which allows the only natural light in, but cannot be opened, and the room is sound proofed and it's only door is controlled by means of an electronic security keypad.

For the first five years of his life Jack has been led to believe by his mother that the room is their world and nothing exists outside of it, and what they see on the television only exists in the television - it is not real. Joy, despite her surroundings, has tried to create an environment for Jack where he can still learn & grow, be stimulated and kept active, and lead a fulfilled life in his own beliefs which his Ma has instilled in him. All the while Joy suffers from her own depressions and malnutrition but remains eternally optimistic and upbeat for Jack's sake in the hope that one day they may be freed.

With this in mind and with the advent of Jacks fifth birthday Joy begins to sew the seeds in Jack that as he is growing up and becoming smarter so he needs to learn that in fact the world outside is real, and whilst they are 'inside' there is an 'outside' where there are trees, and animals, and other people. At first Jack dismisses this and rebels against his Ma in anger. In time he begins to ask questions about what he sees on television, which in turn opens up the dialogue to a possible escape plan but for which she needs Jacks support, understanding and cooperation, which for a five year old, who knows absolutely nothing of the real world other than a three by three meter shed, is a tall ask.

The plan involves Jack playing dead, having perished from the cold when Old Nick turns off the electricity supply during Winter. Ripped with 'grief' Joy rolls Jacks 'corpse' up in a carpet and explains to Old Nick that he was too late with the medication he was going to secure for Jack, and now he must dispose of the body. He agrees and hauls the rolled up carpet into the back of his pick-up truck at dusk. Inside Jack awaits until the third set of traffic lights and the car comes to a stop as instructed by his Ma, and then unrolls himself and jumps out of the truck and runs for the nearest passer by proclaiming that he is the son of Joy Newsome.

Mission accomplished, Jack is picked up confused, frightened and alone. The police are alerted who ask all the basic questions for which Jack has no answers, however, is taken in by the kind hearted and caring female police officer and through simple deduction descend on Old Nick's property where he is promptly arrested and never to be seen again, and Joy is freed and reunited with Jack.

What follows is Joy and Jacks integration back into society with the media frenzy that goes with such a case. After tests are run on both and a brief period of hospitalisation Joy is reunited with her parents Nancy (Joan Allen) and Robert (William H. Macy) who are now divorced. Nancy is remarried to Leo (Tom McCamus) who welcome them back to the family home for a period of readjustment, although Robert who now lives elsewhere cannot deal with Jack and is in denial that he is the product of his daughters captor and won't even look Jack in the eye because of it, much to the disgust of Joy.

Jack steadily learns to adjust to his new world, but Joy falls deeper into depression as the media frenzy continues and probing questions are asked about Jacks upbringing for the first five years of his life, his biological father and why she made the decisions she did despite her circumstances. As a result she overdoses, but is discovered in time by Jack who raises the alarm. He asks his grandmother to cut his hair for the first time in over five years in order that the off cut can be sent to his Ma in hospital to make her strong from his strong, having been told the story of Samson and the Lion and believing that strength comes from his long hair. Nancy agrees, in what is a truly touching scene.

With his Ma back home, and Jack finding a neighbourhood friend of his own, some sense of normality is starting to set in. Jacks says that sometimes he misses Room and would like to go back and so under police escort they visit the nearby house of Old Nick and the shed that was their world for seven years. Jack says of the now almost empty room that it is not the same with the door open, and so he says good bye to the individual fitments that remain and were not carted off as evidence, giving them both closure.

This is a story of survival, fortitude and optimism amongst the most isolated and hopeless circumstances. It is a harrowing tale of fear and redemption that is uplifting and rewarding in the final analysis and will warm the heart, but it will not be for everyone. A compelling story, well told and kudos to Director Abrahamson who eeks out two fine performances but perhaps most notably that of young Jacob Tremblay who puts in a turn that is nuanced, believable and worthy of the recognition he is getting for someone so young.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-