Room (2015)
There’s so much of place in the world.
THE SUMMARY: A kidnapped woman and her child conceived in rape escape their captor, but find nearly as many challenges on the outside as they did in. It’s a deep story with big but basic themes: family, simplicity, the value of life, and more. A few minor complaints about aesthetics and premises claim a Wicky, but overall, it’s excellent and recommended.
NO MOVIE-PICKER COMMENTARY: Room is a random selection from the IMDb top-250 list, as the nominated movies were rejected by vote last week. It currently ranks #216.
JAMIE AND JEANNE’S AI FACESWAPS:
No.
A few years from now.
Also a few years from now, during the Gay War.
I poured the cereal first, like a civilized man.
THE BEST:
Is Jack’s life worth less because of his father?: Of course it’s fiction, but given how much the question is raised in real politics, it’s interesting to ask a viewer: would it be okay to kill Jack because his dad, Old Nick, is a kidnapper rapist? If not, why not? Is it because Jack is an innocent boy who is a victim of his father just as much as his mom is?
It’s another way of asking the question: does a life have value inherently, or does it only have value if its parents decide it does? Something to think about in these times of ‘reproductive rights.’
Your children will save your life: Jack’s life has value for its own sake, of course, but his core role in the story is metaphorically and literally saving his mom’s life. He gives his mom purpose and a future in a doomsday scenario, and he catches his mom in time save her from her suicide attempt. This is the value of your children - you give them life, and they save yours. Forego that deal at your own peril.
The power of the cave projection: Joy breaking Jack’s understanding of ‘room’ and explaining the reality of the world to him is a powerful scene, a modern day reenactment of Plato’s allegory of the cave. In the cave, people are shackled and see only shadows projected on the wall in front of them. Because the projections are all they know, they believe the projections to be reality.
The basic idea is this: if you don’t know anything else, a false presentation can be your reality, and it can be very convincing. Thus, breaking that ‘reality’ or getting you to see a deeper reality behind it can be instinctively rejected. To upend foundational premises can be to upend your entire life, after all.
It’s easy to think Jack is just a gullible five-year-old. The truth is, in varying ways, we all are. We are all fed the same ‘room’ concepts and conditioned to accept them. It’s called propaganda, and breaking it within ourselves can be much more difficult than it was for Jack, actually.
A desire to return to captivity/keep life simple and focused: When Jack says he misses room, and wants to return, it’s easy to dismiss it as some sort of Stockholm Syndrome. But it’s more than that - there’s a peace and satisfaction with a simple and focused life, especially one focused properly: on family. In room, Jack had his basic needs met, and his mom. He didn’t have to worry about all the confusing noise on the outside.
The lesson, of course, is not to get kidnapped into a simpler life. It’s to design life simply for yourself. Focus on building your own ‘room’ - make it peaceful, stable, and family-oriented, and you will be secure and insulated from all the exterior distractions.
Don’t be too nice: There’s an insightful quote when Joy and her mom Nancy are arguing after the escape. Both women are processing their pain, with Nancy insisting that her life was ruined just as much as Joy’s. Joy apologizes for not being ‘nice’ enough for her mom, but says maybe if her mom hadn’t raised her to be so ‘nice’ by default, she wouldn’t have been friendly with Old Nick and thus avoided capture.
That’s not just an angry argument - it’s wise. It doesn’t mean you should be mean to other people, but for young women especially, nice and trusting by default can easily get you victimized. The ‘nice’ thing for Joy to do in that scenario would have been to find a man to help Old Nick and his ‘dog,’ not to try to help on her own. ‘Nice’ without wisdom and caution is suicidal in a world of evil people.
A journalist scumbag: It’s telling that Joy tries to kill herself after speaking with a journalist who questions her motives. Getting raped for years in a dungeon was fine - dealing with journalists is the real struggle. It breaks Joy’s commitment to her son itself. Damn.
Sometimes I miss it.
Reality breaks the projection.
To see the world in a new way.
THE WORST:
It starts unwatchably dark: I don’t even mean in rape themes - I mean the video is just too dark. I can’t see a damn thing. Which I’m sure is the point. It’s dark and discouraging on the inside, and bright and exciting on the outside - I get it. But is this a movie, or the view from under a burka?
Joy’s dad’s storyline is silly and incomplete: As a father, having your daughter violated the way Joy was, and a grandson conceived in that situation must be enraging in a very confusing way. Of course you’d be thankful for your grandson, but always hate the circumstances through which he was born. And I suppose, maybe even hate a piece of him biologically, even if you know the child is innocent.
I’m not disputing why Joy’s dad Robert would have difficulty processing the situation. I just don’t understand why this storyline goes nowhere. Robert lives far away, shows up briefly, and rage quits. That’s it? No arc in his acceptance of his grandson? What’s the point of him even being there? To demonstrate that kidnapping and rape breaks families? Yeah… that’s pretty obvious.
The escape scheme is tough to believe: Of course the method by which Jack escapes and then frees Joy is less important than what the escape means for the development of the story, but the way they did it is tough to believe. Jack is going to play dead in a rolled up rug, on the bet that Old Nick doesn’t investigate at all to verify? And then he doesn’t?
Old Nick is not a very honorable men, hence his rape dungeon. Why would swearing his word to Joy mean anything to him? It would certainly mean less than not getting caught. The first thing he’d do on the outside is unroll the rug and confirm that Jack is actually dead.
And then there’s the actual escape itself - Jack flops around like a fish in that truck bed for several minutes while Old Nick doesn’t notice, even though he’d be frantically observing everything making sure nothing weird happens, and he’d feel that much weight shifting in the truck. And then when Jack jumps out, Old Nick successfully grabs him and has him back to the truck, but bails and lets Jack go… I guess so the witness won’t call the cops? But that strategy makes no sense, considering the cops are called immediately regardless. More plausibly, Old Nick doesn’t just give up. He flees with Jack and there’s some sort of chase scene or something. But I guess this isn’t an action movie.
Or just skip all of that, and create a different scenario where Joy and Jack figure out a way to escape the shed when Old Nick enters. There were two doors locked by keypad, so even if escaping through the doors was impossible, that skylight couldn’t be that durable. If Andy can dig through a prison wall with a rock hammer in Shawshank, I think Joy can figure something out with seven years in a pretty flimsy-looking shed.
Whatever the method, there are more realistic options than this wait-five-years-until-you’re-old-enough-to-play-dead-in-a-rug scheme.
Hard to believe, but I'll allow it.
THE RATING: 4/5 Wickies. That makes four in a row since that Rocky Horror garbage, and again I’m right on the edge of a coveted Five Wicky™ rating. It’s memorable and meaningful, and the flaws are minimal.
YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇ Note: if you get a notification saying you have already voted and you haven’t, this is because of an issue with iOS (Apple mobile devices). Try voting on a desktop or laptop computer.
FOR OCTOBER 6: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1982). The Road Warrior is Blonde’s selection for October. Remember: there is no show on Sunday, September 29.
AFTER THAT? YOU PICK - VOTE! October’s movie nominations are from listener Brandy. Remember: Brandy has submitted five movies, and Matt and Blonde have submitted one each. You will not know who submitted which movies until they are selected.
Blonde’s October pick has now been selected - Matt’s remains on the board.
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