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 was writing my review for Steve Jobs yesterday, I was trying to remember the last time I was moved to the point of 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 near perfect, in my opinion. While Abrahamson’s Room is by no means perfect, it is rich, intelligent, gut-wrenching, and unfortunately, it is a little too real.
I will provide spoilers for this movie because it is too important a film not to discuss deeply. I will let you know when these spoilers do occur so you can keep reading for now if you haven’t seen this movie. What I will assume is that you’ve watched the trailer. If you have not, watch the trailer now or do what I did and see the movie. But I would do one of these two things before continuing with this review. I didn’t know how much of an impact Room would have on me going in. I knew a little bit about the film going in. I didn’t know how little I knew. This movie will be on many critic end-of-year top 10 lists and will get 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. This 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 movie that has been made this year.
Continue reading Room (2015)
When we come across some of the most extraordinary people or find ourselves in the most fortunate situations, we are least looking for those. At times we are presented with the greatest of gifts that, at one point, we could never have imagined and, the next, you can’t imagine how you ever functioned prior. I imagine this is how you might feel when you know you have found your lifelong partner or when you have a child. I’ve had three of these moments in my life. While I have discussed these other two moments very, very infrequently with anyone, there is one that I will share often. It involves my wonderful niece Jessica. Today (February 17, 2013) is her birthday. She just turned 25. She recently married her high school boyfriend. She’s a teacher. Besides me, Jessica is the only teacher in either of our extended families. She is as wonderful of a human being as you will ever meet. She is and has always been so sweet, kind, and intelligent. She’s wise beyond her years but still has this youthful appreciation for life’s little gems. I love her so much and am so proud to be her uncle. I was asked to be an usher at her wedding this past fall, which was one of my life’s great honors. With only a 12-year age gap between us, I do think of her as a little sister as much as I do a niece. I’ll touch on more of this later in this review.