Room 2015

Their room feels so cramped. I was under the impression that they were under experiment or that the world was already apocalyptic. Everything looked so small, so limiting, so suffocating that my first instinct was: “What kind of universe is this?” Only later did I realize that we are seeing it from Jack’s universe. A boy who believes that the Room is literally the entire world. The film traps us inside his perspective so effectively that even I felt like there must be something bigger, darker, and more sci-fi happening outside. This is a very different Brie Larson. Bare face, tired eyes, broken spirit. She isn’t acting like a movie protagonist such as Captain Marvel. I’ll be honest. The kid is another annoying spoiled kid at the start. That’s why I don’t like to have a son. But as the film goes along the way, he gets better. It’s because he’s learning for the first time of what the world actually is. Jack isn’t spoiled. He’s inexperienced, overstimulated, and raised in a literal box. The escape planning feels weird. Using her son like that. It’s terrifying. It’s dangerous. It’s desperate. But after seven years of failed attempts, trauma, and dwindling hope, her son was her only chance. The horrible logic becomes the only logic. And when he finally got out, I was like "Dafuq?". Mukhang normal lang yung outside ng Room. Bakit sila nakalockup dun? The outside world is peaceful. The streets are normal. Joy wasn’t locked in by apocalypse. She wasn’t trapped for research. She wasn’t hidden by a global disaster. Evil was simply living in a backyard shed, in the middle of a normal neighborhood, where no one ever noticed. The idea that the worst things can happen under our noses while life moves on normally, makes me shiver. The police officer deducing where the Room is got me clapping. She didn’t solve it by force. She solved it by empathy. Every detail was a map hidden in a child’s innocence. Naalala ko tuloy si Liam Neeson nung tinatrack ang kidnappers ng anak nya. Parang nakukulangan lang ako sa story ni Joy bakit parang wala siyang dalang trauma kahit 7 yrs siyang kinulong dun sa Room but that is just an akala. Kinikimkim lang pala niya. She masks her pain because she’s finally free, and the world expects her to be grateful. She suppresses her breakdown because she wants to look normal. Her tipping point is the media interview: na para bang lahat ng decision nya for Jack was not to protect his best interests. The moment the interviewer questions her decision as a mother, all her suppressed guilt bursts open. The film becomes a mirror of real struggles of motherhood: They've done everything they could but the always finds a way to blame them. I really got touched when Jack said “I love you” to his grandma. I feel like she was the first relationship he had next to his mother. Jack’s world expands one person at a time. Joy's wish becoming to be true one step at a time: Jack connecting to the real world. Joy is his universe. His grandma becomes his first new planet. It’s the beginning of a bigger life, a bigger world, and a bigger heart. Love, for Jack, is no longer confined to a single person. That is growth. I got really teary eyed when Joy said she is not really a good mom but Jack only said, “But you are mom.” This is one of the best lines in the entire film. Goes to show that children only care about presence, not perfection. Oftentimes, we think we are not good enough for our children but little did we know that we mean everything for them. Sometimes children see the truth adults can’t see. The final scene feels like healing. The Room, which once felt like the entire universe, now looks small, powerless, meaningless. Saying goodbye to a place of suffering and opening a new chapter of life.