Room, The |
France / Luxembourg / Belgium • 2019 • 100m •
  • Directed by: Christian Volckman. • Starring: Olga Kurylenko, Kevin Janssens, Joshua Wilson, John Flanders, Francis Chapman, Vince Drews, Marianne Bourg, Oscar Lesage, Carole Weyers, Michaël Kahya, Jean-Louis Sbille, Victor Meurice, Livio Siscot. • Music by: Raf Keunen.    While moving into a secluded mansion, a young loving couple, Kate and Matt discovers a strange secret room, whose interior holds the power to make everything they want a reality. Millions of dollars, the original of Van Gogh and the most luxurious outfits - whatever they want, instantly materializes. One day, she decides to ask the room to grant them the child they haven't been able to have. But their initial happiness from this blessing will have unforeseen consequences. As they say: careful what you wish for.
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Review:
"The room" will materialize any and all of the "things" you wish for.... and the conflict of the film arises when protagonist Kate wishes for the child she longed for after many failed pregnancies. It is a wish that her husband Matt vehemently opposes for most of the film as he views his son as a "figment", rather than a real human being because he was created by the room and like all the other objects borne from it, will age and wither into ash the moment he leaves the house. They discover this when the money and Van Gogh painting Matt brings out of the house dematerialize into ash, and when Kate unknowingly takes baby Shane outside, he ages into a young boy by the time he is brought back into the house.
The movie portrays Shane as a creepy antagonist, but the fact is throughout the film, no matter his age (and not withholding a very disturbing scene near the end), he always possesses the mental capacity of an extremely innocent 7-8 year old who struggles to understand his own existence and the world around him, and is purely operating on the anger and hatred that was instilled in him by Matt, as well as by his fear and alienating loneliness, having spent his entire existence trapped in the house. Anything remotely evil he does throughout the movie comes from the mind of a small child who is angry and scared and does not know any better.
The room, similar to Shane is simply a vehicle for malevolence rather than being inherently evil.
Here is where it gets infuriatingly contradictory and just.. lacking in any semblance of logic.
After a period of confinement and restrictions as well as hostility from Matt, Shane explores the house more and he inadvertently discovers the room. His parents find him inside building a snowman, having created an entire forest world replicating what he sees outside the window every day. Matt becomes paranoid of the possible ramifications that might arise from Shane's knowledge of the room's powers and angrily locks him out of it
John Doe- also a creation of the room like Shane, ominously and almost tauntingly calls them after to inform Matt that there is indeed a way for Shane to leave the house, and that is if a sacrifice is made. If the creators of the wish dies- in this case Kate. Kate overhears the conversation and deliriously leaves, attempting to kill herself, but is ultimately unsuccessful.
Question: If you can create a whole freaking middle earth in the room, why didn't they just let him stay in there and create a world of his own with friends and whatever. That literally sounds better than for him to leave the house, go out into "the real world" grow up and get a 9 to 5 job. And no one would have to die. If they were afraid he would wish for something dangerous that could escape into the house like Matt feared, they literally have a key that can lock the door of the room from the outside.
Shane attempts to leave the house once again, and this time he is actually successful... and by the time his parents arrive, they find he has become an adult. A skirmish ensues and Kate is knocked out. Through a series of paradoxical sequences we discover that Shane is masquerading as Matt and has taken Kate into the room with a replica of the house. Here is the other giant pothole that phases me. The subsequent lengthy and life threatening escape during the climax was 100% unnecessary because at any point when either Kate or Matt were in the room they could've wished everything away (including Shane)- as it was within their power to do so, but this is never presented as a viable option.
Overall, it was an ambitious movie with redeeming qualities, but ultimately it is poorly thought out and this cripples the plot significantly.
Review by victoria-71007 from the Internet Movie Database.
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