Room

The title cannot be anymore straightforward.

Loosely inspired by the Fritzl case in 2008, "Room" immediately starts out strong with a very riveting premise, where a mother (Brie Larson) and a child (Jacob Tremblay) have been held captive in a room for over 7 years. We have no idea who they are, where this room is exactly located, or why they are in this room. Within 10 minutes into the film, you cannot help but feel captivated by your own questions and maybe some draw comparisons to "Oldboy", similarly where a man is kidnapped and imprisoned inside a room for 15 years. Perhaps the most striking component of "Room" is the relationship between the mother and the child, who was born in the room and has been living in it since. Imagine the narratives that the mother has to create in order to raise her child "properly". Imagine what the child's views of the world and his existence are. Without a doubt, there psychological thrills behind watching this aberrant situation unfold and especially Brie Larson act as a mentally and physically devastated single mother. She is indeed an incredible actress, as her performance really did not go unnoticed with her 15 "Best Actress" awards in total from this film alone. Jacob Tremblay also deserves high praise, in which his performance contributed to the "Room" receiving 62 awards and 131 nominations overall. Simply amazing.

With all that said, and not to take anything away from its accomplishments,"Room" is also not the most thrilling film despite its intriguing premise. Once the story reaches its midpoint, things start to slow down and lose direction. "Boring" could be an apt descriptor for the second half of the film because the stakes of the plot are significantly trivialized while the goals of the characters become gradually more ambiguous. A drama film like this does not rely on fabricated excitement but instead, uses realism to depict human psychology and nothing more. Some people appreciate such form of drama, while others look for something more quixotic. On the other hand, among the 131 nominations and 62 awards that the "Room" received were for "Best Screenplay" and "Best Adapted Screenplay", which tells us that story is far from a problem for the majority. But for my tastes, the only component of the film that I truly appreciated was the tremendous acting. But even then, the acting loses its edge in the middle of the story. At the same point, the film starts to wander aimlessly with the plot and drags on until it is a matter time when the show reaches its minutes. Again, maybe it's just a pretentious way of saying that it is boring. Could they have made everything more exciting? Of course yes, but it would lose sight of reality and eventually become confusing, as the point of "Room" is to tell a heartfelt story. Period. It just so happens that the "based on a real story" type films are not my cup of tea.

A key to great acting is understand the character. Brie Larson nailed it.