ROOM (Lenny Abrahamson). 118 minutes. Opens Friday (October 23). See listings. Rating: NNNN Win a copy of ROOM on Blu-ray™ here.
Given the buzz surrounding its People’s Choice win at TIFF, you may already have heard that Brie Larson is absolutely amazing in Room. But it’s absolutely true.
As a young woman who’s spent seven years in total isolation – five of them with her young son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay) – Larson’s recessed, almost elemental performance communicates bone-deep trauma and profound resilience. She is the movie, plain and simple.
Emma Donoghue’s adaptation of her own novel necessarily loses a lot of the lyricism, but director Lenny Abrahamson (Frank) makes the most of his limited resources.
Once the story opens up, a good deal of tension goes out, but Larson’s performance carries Room through to the end.
See our interview with Brie Larson here, and our Q&A with director Lenny Abrahamson here.