When we were young, there were always adults who said to us: "We must cherish the carefreeness of our childhood. When we grow up, the world will be completely different." But as little kids who have never been involved in the world, we always Squander the seemingly precious time of these adults. Only when we finally grow up will we feel regret. I regret that the world in front of us is no longer carefree. I regret that we can no longer laugh innocently. So later, whenever we saw the children in front of us jumping around, we always squatted down and told them the same things, hoping that they could see the world with a pair of innocent eyes.
Movies are a peculiar medium, because within a limited two hours, it provides a channel for the audience to experience perspectives that they can't normally experience. We love movies, probably because in a short period of time, we can escape the hustle and bustle of reality and experience a world that is different from usual. But even so, directors rarely try to give us a special experience through the perspective of children in non-animation. In the final analysis, the vast majority of movie audiences are adults, and in order to make it easier for everyone to enter and understand the world of the characters, a perspective similar to our usual life seems to be necessary. But the small independent film "The Room" has to say no to this. In this film full of complex emotions, director Lenny Abrahamson tries to tell this fascinating story from a perspective that is completely new to the world.
This perspective comes from the eyes of a five-year-old child who has never seen the colorful world in front of us. The setting of "The Room" is so simple and cruel. The "mother" played by Bly Larson was abducted and confined in a small room less than ten square meters seven years ago, never seeing the sun, and staying with her. It is the son Jack played by Jacob Tremblay. We saw her trying to be a strong and strict mother in a small space, and we also saw her using limited resources to try her best to provide her son with a more interesting life. We also saw this child say good morning to all the objects in the room, and we also saw him crying and asking for toys like a normal child. Finally after Jack's fifth birthday, "Mom" was going to tell the little adult everything he didn't know, and to find a way to escape this isolated cabin.
Although this background setting makes "Room" inevitably have elements of suspenseful survival films in many places, it is not a simple genre film. The process of watching "The Room" is destined to be difficult. In fact, I even think that compared to the same Oscar-nominated "Wild Hunter" and Quentin's new work "The Hateful Eight" in the same period, "The Room" is a movie without the blood hanging on the camera. A more uncomfortable movie. But the difference is that after the end of "Wild Hunter" and "The Hateful Eight", the audience does not seem to be able to get any rewards from the arduous viewing process (of course, these two films don't care what rewards are given to the audience), and " "Room" can make people love the world around them and life itself more.
movie consciously allows the audience to enter Jack's perspective at the beginning, let us discover what is reality and what is illusion in the eyes of this five-year-old. In Jack's eyes, the "room" is all of the world. He would greet the objects in the "room", and he also believed that the sky was only the size of the window above his head. We followed Jack’s perspective and had fun in the simple “room”. We also followed Jack’s perspective and hid in the closet at night. We even followed Jack’s perspective to witness the nasty things that happened to "Mom" at night. The difference is that as adults, we know that "mother" chooses to accept these cruel things in order to survive, but Jack, who thinks that there are only two people in the world, knows that he can't make a sound, but doesn't understand what's happening outside. Condition. Jack may not even understand the escape method "Mom" told him, but he knows that he can't live without his only relative. Although he didn't know what the police around him were doing, he knew he was going back to find "Mom." And when Jack finally saw "Mom" running toward him without incident, the audience didn't know what made them feel the pain, but they were sure that this scene was really the most tear-jerking scene of the year. Embrace.
Perhaps it is the unknown sense of the real world outside that makes it easier for the audience to bet on Jack emotionally. So when he finally escaped from the "room" and woke up in the hospital, when the camera aimed at the smooth floor that Jack had never seen before, when he carefully took the first step on this strange floor. , The audience can easily feel the strange and scary feeling brought by the unknown for a long time while crying out in their hearts. This is the feeling of seeing the world for the first time.
However, the freshness of the first time was quickly consumed, and replaced by the fear of the unknown. For both "Mom" and Jack, living in the "room" for a long time means that their adaptation to the outside world will not be a simple matter. If the first half of "The Room" chose to use suspense to promote the plot, then the focus of the second half is undoubtedly the bond between mother and child. Whether it is a question from an unfamiliar media, a family's incomprehension, or a suspicion about the past, both mother and child must face it together.
Parallel to the mother-child relationship between "Mo" and Jack, it is the mother-daughter relationship between "Mo" and her mother. We can easily see the guilt of the old mother towards her daughter, and at the same time we can understand her inner desire for her daughter and grandson to have a peaceful life in the future. But years of separation made their relationship complicated. Fortunately, Jack's existence saved "Mom" and even the family. "I love you, grandma." With just such a simple sentence, we were once again moved by the pure love of this five-year-old child, and we were also shocked by the children's heart that can quickly recover. Of course, the process of "Mom"'s emotions being rescued by Jack from the bottom of the valley seems too simple, especially considering what they have experienced in the "room" for seven years. But it is this relationship between mother and child that is still indestructible in the most unbearable adversity. This relationship that all viewers have a little experience in life so that they can easily connect, gives "The Room" the power to touch the viewers' hearts.
Bry Larson's interpretation of the role of "Mom" may be a wonderful performance that defines her career. During the production, Larson chose to stay in the role continuously, even during the rest period, not to walk out of the role, and deliberately adjusted his eating habits to reflect the environment of "Mom". She also naturally won the Oscar nomination for best actress, and it can even be said to be a hot candidate. This actress who has shown surpassing her peers' acting skills in "Juvenile Shelter", even in the comedy "Wreckage of Life", is enough to make others lose their color in an instant. But her delicate and in-depth performance is not the only highlight in "The Room". Jacob Tremblay's interpretation of Jack, as the audience's first perspective to understand the world in the movie, truly interprets what talent is. It's hard to know if Tremblay knows what acting is at this age, but Jack will undoubtedly be the best performed role in 2015, not even one of them. He injects simplicity into a character that is easy to be played too fancy, especially the dubbing throughout the film. It is no exaggeration to say that in this awards season when everyone is calling for grievances for black actors, Tremblay is the most overlooked bead.
Larson and Tremblay spent a lot of time cultivating the relationship between them after shooting, and we can be sure that there must be a variety of decorations and details by them in the room. It is the true feelings they have established that make "The Room", which is full of sensational plots and physical and mental torture, is more like a close-up observation of the pain, free release, and discovery of how mothers and sons are separated. The exquisite story that grows slowly under the joy of my life. And the end of the movie is just like the beginning, again only "Mom" and Jack are left in the lens. This is probably the most reasonable ending, because only when they are together can they close the door of the "room" behind them and move towards the future that is happening together.
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