Room
Room is a 2015 independent drama film directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Emma Donoghue, based on her 2010 novel of the same name. It stars Brie Larson as a woman who has been held captive for seven years and whose 5-year-old son (Jacob Tremblay) was born in captivity. Their escape allows the boy to experience the outside world for the first time. The film also stars Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, and William H. Macy.
The film was a co-production of Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States and was shot in Toronto, with the eponymous set built at Pinewood Toronto Studios. The crew designed each part of the set for the room to be removable to provide access for the crew. Larson researched trauma and nutrition for her part.
Room premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2015, and later screened at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received the People's Choice Award. The film was theatrically released in Canada on October 23, 2015 by Elevation Pictures and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on January 15, 2016 by StudioCanal. It began a limited theatrical run in the United States on October 16, 2015 by A24. Room received critical acclaim for Larson's and Tremblay's performances and the storytelling, and grossed $36.3 million on a $13 million budget.
Cited as one of the best films of the year, Room received numerous awards and nominations. At the 88th Academy Awards, Room received four nominations, including Best Picture, and winning Best Actress for Larson. It also won nine Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and seven Irish Film & Television Awards, including Best Film. Larson won the BAFTA for Best Actress.
In Akron, Ohio, 24-year-old Joy Newsome and her 5-year-old son Jack live in a squalid shed they call Room. They share a bed, toilet, bathtub, television, and rudimentary kitchen; the only window is a skylight. They are captives of a man they call "Old Nick", Jack's biological father, who abducted Joy seven years prior and routinely rapes her while Jack sleeps in the closet. She tries to stay optimistic for her son but suffers from malnutrition and depression. She allows Jack to believe that only Room and its contents are real, and that the rest of the world exists only on television.
Old Nick tells Joy that he has lost his job and threatens that he may not be able to afford their supplies in the future. That night, Jack is overcome with curiosity and ventures out of the closet while Old Nick is asleep in bed with his mother. Joy is horrified when she awakens and sees their interaction, slapping Old Nick away. As punishment, he cuts their heat and power. Joy decides to tell Jack about the outside world; he reacts with disbelief and incomprehension, but also curiosity. She has Jack fake a fever, hoping that Old Nick will take him to a hospital where he can alert the authorities, but Old Nick says he will return the following day with antibiotics.
Joy wraps Jack in a carpet and has him play dead in the hope that Old Nick will remove him from Room. Falling for the ruse, Old Nick places Jack in the back of his pickup truck and drives through a residential neighborhood. Although stunned by his first exposure to the outside world, Jack jumps from the truck and attracts the attention of a passerby. Nick attempts to drag Jack back to his truck, but fails in the process. He drops Jack and flees the scene. The police arrive and rescue him. The police discover Joy as well, and take her and Jack to a hospital. Old Nick is captured and arrested.
Reunited with her family, Joy learns that her parents have divorced and that her mother has a new partner, Leo. She returns with Jack to her childhood home where her mother and Leo reside. Her father cannot accept Jack as his grandchild and leaves. Jack struggles to adjust to life in the larger world, speaking only to his mother and expressing a desire to return to Room. Joy struggles with anger and depression, lashing out at her mother and becoming worried about Jack's lack of interaction with "real" things. At the suggestion of the family's lawyer, Joy agrees to a television interview, but becomes upset when the interviewer questions her decision to keep the newborn Jack instead of asking Old Nick to take him to a hospital, so he could have a chance at a normal life. Overwhelmed with guilt, she attempts suicide; Jack finds her unconscious in the bathroom, and she is admitted to a hospital.
Jack misses his mother but begins to settle into his new life. He bonds with his new family, meets Leo's dog, Seamus, and makes friends with a boy his age. Believing his long hair will give Joy the strength she needs to recover, Jack has his grandmother cut it for him so he can send it to her. Joy returns home and apologizes, thanking Jack for saving her life again. At Jack's request, they visit Room one last time, escorted by police. Jack is confused; he feels it has shrunk and that it is a different place with the door open. He and Joy say their goodbyes to Room and leave.
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