Room

Grade: A

Roger Ebert once said “We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls.” It is a joyous occasion to come across a film that completely takes me out of my life and what’s on my mind, and when it’s over, I come back to reality rested, refreshed, cleansed, and ready to tackle it. Director Lenny Abrahamson has made an astounding film called Room, which is the most powerful movie I’ve seen in the last year, and just about the best for me since…well, last year’s Best Picture winner. Room opens with a mother and her just-turned-5-year-old son. They live in a small-ish room with no windows, only a skylight. They call it Room. They can’t leave Room because the one and only door can only be opened by code. They have everything they need (heat, A/C, plumbing, food, they even have a TV) because a man known as Old Nick comes almost every day to deliver supplies. Some nights Old Nick sleeps in the bed with the mother, in which case the boy must sleep in the tiny closet. Some nights Old Nick helps himself to a conjugal visit. The boy has lived in Room all his life, and has never known anything else.

And that’s all I will reveal, because I want to give you the opportunity to experience it as I did – going in cold. Room changes up the way a movie is typically presented. The Big Reveal (in which we learn the secrets behind Room, and how it’s tearing them apart) happens at roughly the half hour mark, and the climax happens halfway through. The final hour is all denouement. Refreshingly, we find out what happens after the “The End” in this story. The score is the best I’ll probably hear all year, and since I’m trying my best not to telegraph too much, I won’t say who else is in the movie (and I hesitate to even mention there are more people are in it), but there are some familiar faces, and they are favorites of many, and do their usual captivating work here. Room is endlessly fascinating and masterfully made, but most importantly for me, it is an embodiment of a primary reason I go to the movies. I left life during its two glorious hours.

Grade: A