“Room” An Oscar Movie by Lenny Abrahamson
Small space. Wide world. Life-affirmation. Forgiveness.
“Room” a small movie with a big heart from an Irish Film Board in which BRIE LARSON wins an Oscar for Best Actress in the role of Joy Newsome, a girl who is kidnapped for seven years by a stranger called Nick.
What happens in “Room” is a familiar piece of news you consume on a daily basis. someone is kidnapped and disappear.
And then she gets pregnant and gives birth to a boy named Jack, a giant killer with long hair as powerful as Sampson. When the movie opens, Jack was five. The first thing we hear when the movie starts is Jack’s voice-over.
“Ma said I fell down from the skylight into Ma’s belly. And then I was born.”
The boy has never been outside “room,” yet he seems a normal kid to us. He’s affectionate and well-loved by his ma. He is a happy and smart kid who is curious as other children his age.
His unusual circumstance never deters him from living the life of a five-year-old. He’s curious about anything, having no clue he gives his ma a hard time trying to make the unusual usual for him.
Jack is “normal,” like other kid except for his problem with “reality,” and “imaginary,”; he has difficulty differentiating between what is “real” and what is “made up.” He believes he has a dog named Lucky, an imaginary dog he loves to play and cuddle in his imagination.
In a nutshell, the boy was born and raised in “room” all his life. Except for his ma and a glimpse of old Nick (his ma locks him up in the closet during Nick’s visit), TV, books and ‘skylight’ are his only means of contact with the “real” world outside.
The light shining through the small square up the rooftop symbolizes hope. In the movie, jack and his mother always keep watching at the skylight, making sure God hasn't forgotten about them.
What is very impressive about the movie is its inspiring and uplifting messages despite its dark tone. Human spirits thrive despite adversity.
Joy’s good heart causes her to be an innocent victim of this crime. (Nick can kidnap her because she wants to help him find his dog.) Her name is symbolic and ironic, like may things in the movie. Joy is far from being happy; horrid and unimaginable things happen to her. Yet, she manages to find some happiness and can even forgive in the end.
In the small room where things seem to be hopeless, some beautiful things take place between an unwilling mother and and an unwanted child. They both fill the emptiness in each other’s life.
Despite his origin, Jack is a divine gift for Joy as his mother. His joie de vivre (joy of life) resuscitates Joy’s lifeless existence. He is her reason for existence, helping her smooth her way through the worst time of her life.
Then the situation in “room” is getting worse, as they lay off old Nick and he can’t afford to provide for another two lives.
Joy’s got to do something; otherwise, she and her baby are going to die there. There will be no more food, no more vitamin, no more electricity.
Pretending Jack is ill and dies because of the electricity cut, Joy instructs the reluctant boy to seek help while the older man drives to get rid of his body.
The innocent and curious Jack sees the real world outside “room” for the first time. It’s not TV’s “make-believe” with which he’s familiar. It’s not an “imaginary” dog-like Lucky, but it’s the barking sound of the real dog.
When he uncovers his face from the blanket, Jack’s amazement at the wonder of the earth reminds how you take for granted the amazing things on earth. Familiarity makes you see it as just mundane until someone points its wonder to you. Childhood really sits on the throne.
Jack escapes from old Nick for just a hair’s breadth. Good people and the authority bring him and his ma back to the safety of the real world.
The director divides the movie into two main parts; the first part consists of life in “room” of mother and child; the second part is about their life outside of “room” in the big and abundant world.
Though Jack seems to adapt quite well to the outside world, he tells his ma many times how he wants to go back to “room” where the world seems to exist only for him and his mother.
For Joy, upon returning to her old world, she finds out a lof of things changed. Her parents are divorced. Though everyone gives her a warm welcome, she has a difficult time introducing Jack to them.
Her father refuses to accept jack as a family member. He turns his face away from Jack whenever he sets eyes on him. He can’t stand a nephew born out the unwanted and malicious circumstance.
But Joy is such a tiger mom where Jack is concerned. Jack is everything to her. She is mad at her father for not treating Jack right. She forces her father to look at his nephew to no avail.
But the worst is yet to come, Joy Newsome’s kidnap is a big news for the whole country. She is to be interviewed by one national television Channel. The interviewer is a professional newswoman, yet she is insensitive to the woman’s plight.
Many of her cruel questions drive Joy to a suicide attempt.
Joy is at the end of the rope when asked why she doesn’t give a child born out of this unusual circumstance for adoption. No woman could love such a child and should find a way to get rid of him.
The question from one woman to another woman is cold and unsympathetic. Joy feels abused twice; first, by old Nick; second, by society as a whole. The movie is superb in its portrayal of life complexity.
You can always ask questions, but there doesn't seem to be appropriate, clear-cut answers. The newswoman’s logic cannot use in the case of Joy. Only intuition will help you understand joy’s feeling toward her son.
He truly is the love of her life, her pride an joy. Of course, he is unwanted in the first place. But without him, Joy wouldn’t still be here, understanding and forgiving.
Joy is a changed woman now. Before the kidnap, she is a self-centered girl. She longs to reach for her promising future. Her mishap ruins her life, but ironically rewards something in return.
She learns many precious lessons through Jack. Joy becomes selfless for the first time. She sacrifices her last vitamin to her son.
The movie teaches us life is too complexed for a simple answer. Besides, we can’t compartmentalize life and put it in a segment in the same way a newswoman does. You have to accept life as it is no matter the mess.
At the end of movie, Jack surprises his ma by asking her to take him back to “room” for the last time. He wants to say goodbye to his “room.”
While Jack looks around nostalgically, Joy looks around with melancholy, yet with understanding and forgiving. She’s completely grown up now.
The movie is full of irony. In the misery of “room,” Jack and Joy find happiness and solace in one another. Jack gives Joy a sense of life-affirmation.
While Joy attempts suicide when she already comes out of “room.” In “room,” she never gives suicide a thought since she knows she has to live for Jack. He needs her. And it’s sweet to be necessary for someone.
In conclusion, the director shows us the movie can be profound, uplifting and full of humanity without a big fund or great props. It also gives us a great lesson; sometimes, good and evil are inseparable, just like yin and yang. Without malice, there might not be a virtuous deed. Without badness, you might not stumble on happiness.
Just look at the snake eggshell Jack plays with when he’s in “room.”
Thanks for reading.
