Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

Room Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 5, 2016

One of the perceived “upsets” of the most recent installment of the Academy Awards came when Mark Rylance won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Bridge of Spies, supposedly usurping the statuette from its expected winner, Sylvester Stallone, who was revisiting his iconic role of Rocky Balboa in Creed. Stallone’s reaction at the moment Rylance’s name was announced evinced the same sort of shocked surprise that was also on display last year when Michael Keaton just as unexpectedly saw his Birdman dreams of victory sidelined by Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, though Stallone very graciously rebounded in a few online ripostes after the award “drama” had subsided. What might seem at least as “controversial” about this particular category is not the eventual winner, but the lack of even a nomination for little Jacob Tremblay, an eight year old (at the time of filming) whose performance in Room is arguably the fulcrum around which everything else in the film hinges, including that of his co-star Brie Larson (who ironically took home the Academy Award for Best Actress in a category which was considered a “done deal” the moment Larson was nominated). Room is a devastating emotional gauntlet for the viewer, but considering how traumatic the film’s premise could have been, it’s remarkable how generally life affirming it ends up being, a testament to the performance acumen of its two main players.

Note: It's well nigh impossible to discuss Room without mentioning what some may consider spoilers. Those sensitive to this are encouraged to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.

There’s probably no greater fear that most parents experience than worries about something bad happening to their kids. Along with the “worst case scenario”, which would probably be death for most loving parents, is the thought that some villain might kidnap their child and do something horrible to them. Room’s basic plot setup deals with just such a situation, finding Joy (Brie Larson) in the seventh year of captivity after having been lured into prisoner status as a teenager by a man she knows only as Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). Even more horrifyingly, Old Nick has fathered a son with Joy, an adorable little 5 year old named Jack (Jacob Tremblay). Joy and Jack are kept confined in a squalid shack they call Room, a “domicile” which includes the basics to sustain life, but not much else.

The first half or so of the film documents the attempts by Joy to give Jack some kind of life, despite the fact that the two are never allowed to leave the small and dowdy room. Joy has taken some unusual steps to provide Jack a semblance of “normalcy”, making the boy believe that the only “real world” is the cramped quarters in which he lives, and that everything he witnesses on the old television Old Nick has allowed the two to have is “fantasy”. Joy is still the sexual slave of sorts to Old Nick, and while she may not have full blown Stockholm Syndrome, she’s obviously caught in an impossible situation of trying to cope with that situation while also trying to raise Jack in as nurturing a way as possible, at least considering the horrible circumstances.

Considering how at least somewhat tangentially similar scenarios involving abducted girls or women have played out in films like The Collector, The Lovely Bones or (perhaps even more disturbingly) The Cell, already some may be saying to themselves, “Great—a kidnapped woman raped by her captor and held prisoner in a dilapidated room with her child. Do I really need to see that?” But here’s the thing—Room’s second half actually deals with Joy and Jack’s liberation, one that comes after Joy realizes Jack’s maturation simply can’t be allowed to unfold in the room, especially after Old Nick confesses some economic woes which may make even their already barren existence less feasible. The film has an incredibly tense sequence where Joy plots the escape of Jack, even if it means her own demise, but rather incredibly Jack manages to get out alive and to spark some perhaps too facile events that quickly free Joy as well.

The second half of Room is where perhaps totally unexpectedly the film really starts to deal with some profound issues, thereby creating some really remarkable emotional responses. The sequence where Jack, in the outside world for the first time, looks around (while he’s still more or less captive) and realizes that reality is not in fact some make believe world is one of the more awe inspiring “little” moments in the recent annals of film, and just one prime example of how superb Tremblay is in this difficult role. But what’s so moving about Room is watching the different responses Jack and Joy have to finally being freed. The psychological import of this liberation is completely different for both characters, and Emma Donoghue’s screenplay (adapting her own novel) rather commendably gets “inside” both Joy and Jack without resorting to (too many) florid melodramatic touches.

While the first half of the film at least is a virtual “two hander” (despite the appearance of Old Nick), the second half provides some really nice moments for Joan Allen and William H. Macy as Joy’s distraught (and now divorced) parents, who are dealing not just with being reunited with a daughter they presumed might be dead, but with an adorable little grandson who is adjusting to a world he thought was only imaginary. Larson’s performance in a marvel of both understatement and also an expressive urgency at times, and she’s matched moment to moment by the equally impressive Tremblay.

Room Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Room is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with the Red Epic Dragon capturing at a 6K source format which was then utilized to prepare a 4K DI (according to the IMDb), Room almost needs to be assessed as two separate films in terms of video quality. When Joy and Jack finally get to the outside world, where more fulsome natural lighting conditions prevail, the imagery is outstandingly sharp and well detailed, helped by director Lenny Abrahamson's preference for extreme close-ups, where fine detail is more than abundant. However, the dowdier first half of the film, which offers moments with very low lighting conditions, often has slight but noticeable noise and/or compression anomaly issues (take a look at screenshots 9-11 and note the chunky yellowish near pixellation that is in evidence). These darker moments (probably by design) have little to no shadow definition and therefore very little detail in general. There's some subtle color grading going as well, more in the first half of the film than the second, but detail levels are only marginally affected (if even that) by these choices. Aside from the perhaps unavoidable issues with the low light sequences, this transfer has no other issues of any note that should warrant concern. Room hasn't yet been announced for the new 4K UHD format, but if it is, it will be very interesting to see if some of the admittedly minor issues on this release are ameliorated at all.

Room Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As might be expected from a film which takes place in such a confined space for at least its first half, Room's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is often a rather subtle affair, positing soft ambient environmental effects which convincingly establish the claustrophobic confines in which Joy and Jack find themselves imprisoned. The film's sonic ambitions are a bit more obvious in the film's second half, which begins (more or less) with a truck ride where finally some feel for the "big" outside world starts to spread through the surrounds. Dialogue, the core of this film, is always presented cleanly and clearly and with very few other elements at times to even hint at prioritization issues. Stephen Rennicks provides an appropriately childlike score that wafts quite nicely through the surrounds.

Room Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Lenny Abrahamson, Cinematographer Danny Cohen, Editor Nathan Nugent and Production Designer Ethan Tobman


• Making Room (1080p; 12:03) is an okay EPK with some decent interviews.


• 11 x 11 (1080p; 9:06) is another EPK which focuses on the meaning of the room the two find themselves confined in.


• Recreating Room (1080p; 4:23) is a kind of weird piece looking at the special reconstruction of the original 10 x 10 room set for the film's theatrical screening in Los Angeles, where curious press, filmgoers or tourists could go inside and look around (maybe as a second choice if perhaps they weren't going to Disneyland that day).

Room Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Make no mistake about it, there are aspects to Room which make it very difficult to sit through, probably especially for parents who are prone to worry anyway about the safety of their children. But what is so refreshingly commendable here is the film's portrayal of the resilience of the human spirit under unimaginable duress, not to mention the unshakeable bond between a mother and child. Performances are incredibly moving, technical merits are generally strong, and Room comes Highly recommended.