Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
Trailer
Reviews
Horseface
9
By Horseface
"I want a different story!"
That line and the scene it's taken from is quintessential to what this movie is about — at least to me.
To me, this is so much **not** about being abducted and trapped in a room but about the apparent pointlessness of being, about coming to terms with it and understanding and accepting that any meaning that is to be found, comes from within ourselves. It's also about moving on, about love and parenthood ("Can I?" "There's nothing left."), and just... Well, humanity and love.
It reminds me of the beautiful relationship between father and son in The Road (the book — I don't remember if the movie conveys this relationship very well, but I do remember the beauty of it in the book). The relationship between mother and son in this movie is heartbreakingly beautiful as well.
Also, I don't remember the last time I've seen a child perform this well in a movie. I have a feeling I've seen better, but I can't remember having seen better.
I thought this would be a horror movie (I don't read synopsises or reviews or watch trailers before watching a movie), instead I was moved to tears again and again. But **not** disappointed.
Brilliant. Watch it.
CinemaSerf
7
By CinemaSerf
Jacob Tremblay is really good in this curious, and slightly claustrophobic, tale of a young lad "Jack" who lives with his doting "Ma" (Brie Larson). Nothing odd about that, you might think - well, except for the fact that thus far in his short life, "Jack" has never actually left the room in which he lives. He eats there, plays there, sleeps there - he knows nowhere else. As he ages though, he begins to get itchy feet and his mother finds it more and more difficult to contain his enthusiasm for finding out what is going on outside. What also emerges from their scenario is that "Ma" herself is not exactly free to move about. She was taken by "Nick" (Sean Bridgers) many years earlier and it soon becomes clear that he is likely the father of the boy she is so desperate to protect. Are they better off indoors or seeking freedom? Well, she decides that the latter offers them a better chance of happiness (and quite possibly sanity, too) - but the execution of that plan is not without risk! Lenny Abrahamson directs this with quite a bit of subtlety. He allows the audience to become immersed in the relationship between the two principals; he lets them do the talking and as the narrative unravels we realise that the story is anything but what we may have expected at the start. There is a palpable chemistry between the confident Tremblay and his more experienced co-star, and she complements that well. This is a nuanced and engaging tale offering us plenty of parallels of modern life - good and bad; with a dialogue that is both poignant and frequently heartfelt too. Certainly, it was nothing at all like I was expecting and it's stimulating and enjoyable in equal measure. Well worth a watch.
