"Room", a very realistic film, makes people unable to calm down and think deeply after watching it.
If you asked who my favorite actress is, I would answer without hesitation, Brie Larson.
It's not because of her role as a mighty heroic Captain Marvel in my favorite Marvel franchise, but because of her pre-Captain Marvel movie, The Room.
Some people say that the film "Room" made Brie Larson's acting career. It is true that Brie won the 88th Academy Award for Best Actress in one fell swoop and the 73rd Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Movie Drama with this film, and almost swept the major Film Critics Association awards. But I think it's Brie Larson's nuanced performance in the film that makes this movie a real masterpiece.
"Room" is different from other feature films I've seen. It opens with the monologue of the male lead, a five-year-old boy Jack, and then follows a segment showing the warm life of mother and son in a small room. But behind this kind of warmth, it can give people a deep fear and depression. Because this kind of life is so abnormal. A boy with very long hair; a young mother, but in a small room, with haggard and lifeless faces.
Here I have to admire the acting skills of the two protagonists. Brie never made up and kept her makeup without makeup when filming this scene. Therefore, the haggard look on her face that we also saw in the film is actually the most real. . I have seen the most appropriate comment about an actor's acting skills: if you forget that the person in front of you is acting, and what you see is a real state of life, then this is the best acting. I must admit that this part of "Room" gave me the feeling that it was a slice of the daily life of a lonely mother with her own child, and the woman in front of me was either Brie Larson or Joey herself.
But this kind of warmth did not last long. The mother and son had an argument because the homemade birthday cake had no candles. Although the disturbance soon subsided, when night fell, after mother Joey coaxed Jack to sleep, a man walked away. Entering the room, only then did we realize how terrifying everything presented in front of us was.
The girl Joey does not live in this room normally. She is imprisoned here by the old man Nick, and Jack is the child born after Joey was sexually assaulted by Nick. Although no scene in the movie reflects such a dark world, anyone can feel a deeper level of fear. After a few simple conversations, we learned about the situation of the girl Joey. This is an extremely small room with no windows, and only a skylight allows her to see the sky. The door is locked with a combination, only old Nick knows the combination, she has no chance and will never have the chance to escape this terrible room. So we recalled Jack's innocent monologue at the beginning: "You cry all day long, you watch TV until you become a zombie." It turns out that this monologue is talking about his mother, the girl Joey . We can know that Jack is Joey's hope of continuing to live in this room without becoming numb, Jack is everything to her, the light of hope that she dares to continue to face this hellish life The same light comes in. In my other favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption, there is a line: Hope is good, maybe the best thing on earth, and good things never die. Jack was the good thing about Joey, everything he couldn't let go of.
In the end, Jack became the one who saved Joey's life. Yes, twice.
As Joey gradually begins to feel numb to life in the room, a problem begins to emerge, and Jack is slowly growing up. For Jack, everything in his world is only his mother, this room, and a TV with a "magic world", these are all he knows about the world. Joey begins to fear for Jack's future. Secondly, as Jack grew up, his contact with the old Nick began to be inevitable, and it was something that Joey was extremely afraid of, and she worried that Nick would hurt his children. Ultimately, Joey decides to make a plan and look for an opportunity to escape the room.
However, she was disappointed. Jack is five years old, and he has gradually gained his own understanding of the world. His cognition of the world in the room has been deeply ingrained, no matter how Joey tells Jack over and over again about his experience, his misfortune and the outside world. She told Jack that the world outside the room was very big and that she came to the room only after being deceived by old Nick, who lied to her that he had a sick dog and wanted her to help him. But Jack didn't believe it. He thought his mother's words were boring and full of lies.
However, Jack is a good boy after all. Whatever Mama Joey asked him to do, he would. To get Jack out of the room, Joey wraps Jack in a blanket, rolls the blanket to stiffen Jack's body, and sprinkles rotten eggs on Jack's body to make him smell like a dead man. Nick planned to dispose of the body, so he drove out with the body in his car. When the car stopped, Jack escaped. After Nick found out, he wanted to get Jack back, but passers-by found something unusual, Nick fled, and Jack was saved.
The police came later, and the policewoman communicated with Jack tenderly for a long time before realizing that this was not an ordinary case, so the policewoman wisely discovered the subtle details of Jack's words, and finally found the room and rescued Joey .
But that's not the whole story.
In fact, some people think that the second half of "Room" is mediocre, but I just think that the essence of this movie is in the second half.
The story of "Room" can essentially be said to be a "rescue" story. Mother Joey used a plan to send her son Jack and rescued Jack; Jack recalled the relevant details of the room and saved his mother Joey. In the later part, Jack used his innocence to save his mother, who had been in the shadow of the room. However, the innocence that Jack can always have is precisely what his mother has always taught her in the room, which means that Joey has also been saving Jack. In the end, with the encouragement of Jack, Joey gradually stepped out of his shadow and saved himself.
And this second half, let me think deeply, mainly three parts.
The first part is public attention. After Joey was rescued, her case became the focus of the society. When she was discharged from the hospital, many people spontaneously gathered around her house to cheer and encourage her. Many enthusiastic citizens gave Jack toys, and even some The TV did an interview with Joey. However, when the heat of the matter gradually subsided, no one paid attention to Joey again. Except for his family, Joey was extremely lonely.
The second part is a passage of Joey arguing with her mother. Joey said, "I'm sorry I'm not as nice as I used to be, you know? If it wasn't for your voice always in my head reminding me to 'be nice', maybe I wouldn't be helping that guy who pretends to have a dog. Guys!" This sentence is reminiscent of the 2013 Korean movie "Sowon". The two girls helped people they shouldn't help out of kindness, and then encountered changes that could destroy their lives. But what did the girl do wrong? Did their parents do something wrong? We are always teaching our children to be kind, to be helpful, to be able to help those who can help, to hand someone an umbrella, or to help someone else's sick puppy, it's all very common things, No one could have predicted what could happen. This reality makes us reflect on how we can prevent such a thing from happening again, and how can we eliminate these demons one by one under the sun.
The last part is the scene where the mother and son return to the room at the end of the film. Joey's eyes were somber because there were so many painful, dark, and unbearable memories here, but this was where Jack and his mother used to live. When Jack asked to go back to the room to take a look, I was still worried that Jack had not left the shadow of the room, but when Jack said goodbye to everything in the room, I knew my worry was unnecessary. Because Jack said, "If the door is open, it's not a room". Yes, if you can open your heart to the world, then you won't be locked in your own room. For Joey, this room used to be a world she could never get out of, even after she escaped. She imprisoned herself in that room in her heart. It was Jack who opened the door to the room that imprisoned her for the second time, giving her the motivation to live.
When Joey just escaped, he needed to be recuperated in the hospital because of his weakness. The doctor once said to Joey, "The most important thing you do is to save Jack while he is still plastic." Maybe Joey I didn't realize it at first, but it was her love for Jack that saved Jack, and ultimately herself.
Just like a review about this movie I saw before: you give me a tooth, I give you back a bunch of hair, is there a more beautiful mother and son duo than this?
Finally, let's talk about the role of Jacob Tremblay as a young boy, who at the age of seven dedicates mature and amazing acting skills in the film, whether it is innocence in the room or when arguing with his mother. The anger, or the confusion and fear of being in a strange world after escaping from the room, that kind of skilled acting makes people forget that he is just a child. Seriously, at least in this movie, his acting was matched by an Oscar winner.
Even if the world abandons us, as long as we have each other, it is as if we still have the whole world.
The story of "Room" is actually suitable for everyone to read carefully. Even putting aside my fondness for Brie Larson, I still think this is one of the best movies of recent years!
View more about Room reviews
