The Road meets Life Is Beautiful meets Panic Room?
Little-known director Lenny Abrahamson (Frank, What Richard Did) may have just quietly crafted the most beautifully disturbing and profoundly affecting movie of 2015. As I wrote my review of Steve Jobs yesterday, I tried to remember the last time I was moved to tears while watching a movie. Ironically, while Steve Jobs brought out almost no emotion in me, two of director Danny Boyle’s previous films (Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours) had a profound and lasting impact on me and my life. Those two movies were nearly perfect. While Abrahamson’s Room is by no means perfect, it is rich, intelligent, gut-wrenching, and, unfortunately, a little too real.
I will provide spoilers for this movie because it is a vital film that deserves in-depth discussion. I will let you know when these spoilers are revealed, so you can continue reading for now if you haven’t seen the movie. I’m assuming you’ve watched the trailer. If you haven’t, you can watch the trailer now, or do what I did and see the movie. However, I would do one of the following two things before continuing with this review. I didn’t know how much of an impact Room would have on me when I went in. I learned a little bit about the film going in. I didn’t know how little I knew. This movie will appear on many critics’ end-of-year top 10 lists and will likely receive some severe Academy Award nominations. I hope that more moviegoers will give this movie a chance. Is it slow? Yes, it is not The Avengers. Is it more important than The Avengers? Yes, it’s like 1000 times more important than that money hog. It might be the most important movie of 2015. It might be one of the most important movies of the last decade. When lesser movies would have stopped, Room stepped full-throttle on the pedal. Room is a challenging film to digest, and it will feel uncomfortable at times for many moviegoers. While not currently my favorite movie of 2015 (it’s currently #2 for me), this is the best-made movie of the year.