Movie Review - Room

Room is absolutely Oscar caliber. Wow. The book was excellent and now the movie brings it to the screen. The author adapted the screenplay and that bodes well for quality Wow – I am still blown away.

The premise – a young girl (age 17) is abducted and stuck in a garden shed that’s on lock down. She bears a baby from her kidnapper and we first meet them both in “room”. He’s turning five and she’s twenty-four. Brie Larson (Joy) deserves an Oscar hands down. Jacob Tremblay (Jack) deserved a nomination.  The performances are touching, nuanced, and amazing.

She’s raised this boy without the “father” seeing him or being involved. She puts up with Old Nick’s visits and forced sex.(The boy goes to the closet).  She only has a skylight and television to remember the outside world and freedom. Now that Jack turns five she knows he is her link – her chance for them to escape. She has to explain concepts of the real world. At first he doesn’t grasp it, but then thinks things through. He’s reading Alice in Wonderland and she equates some of the concepts.  She works up an escape plan (I won’t give away details). And it works (this is not a huge reveal) but has consequences.

The second part of the movie is about re-adaptation to the real world for her, and new adaptation to a whole new world for Jack. Who does better?  I’m sure you can guess but the journey is fascinating and well done. Joan Allen as Joy’s mom is always excellent. She thought she lost her daughter and now she’s back. There are lawyers, media,  etc to deal with. The world has moved on while Joy was stuck in the “room”.  For Jack, that was his “world”.

Room is touching and gives one perspective. I can’t emphasize enough how well acted this movie is. You feel for Joy. And Jack is a revelation. ..he’s a newborn at age five.  Wow. I keep saying Wow. Trust me – join me in saying Wow! It’s a tough subject and yet (I’ll give this away) it ends well. There’s hope for all.

Book Review: Astray by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue's Astray is an intriguing collection based on true stories. After each fictional tale, Donoghue cites her research, whether it's a news article that caught her eye or a chapter in a history book.

From the book cover - A trainer coaxes his beloved elephant onto a ship carrying him to a life of fame. A mother searches for her baby girl, sent away on a train headed west. A teenage soldier wrestles with his conscience far from home. All have gone astray.

Astray guides us through a past in scattered pieces, a moving history for restless times.

Donoghue brings to life interesting characters and brings history alive with her imagination based on fact. I loved her book Room, and like that book, she can paint a scene and draw in the reader.

I liked what she wrote in her Astray Afterword - Writing stories is my way of scratching that itch: my escape from the claustrophobia of individuality. It lets me, at least for awhile, live more than one life, walk more than one path. Reading of course, can do the same.
May the road rise with you.

'Nuff said. Thanks Emma Donoghue.

Recommended Read: Room

Jack's five-year-old voice leaps from the page and captivates you in the novel Room by Emma Donoghue. To him, Room is the only place he's ever known. It is filled with all that's necessary for his imaginative, energetic life and the key is Ma. However, Room is her prison. She was kidnapped at age nineteen and now at twenty-six, she's wearying of maintaining a calm facade for Jack.

She tries to explain that there is a real world beyond their four walls. But how do you explain reality? And what happens when you re-enter the world after disappearing for seven years? Plus there's Jack, a product of her captivity. He's an innocent boy, with no concept of friends, social boundaries, nature, and family.

Ms.Donoghue brilliantly captures two lives in two different situations. First there's Room, where it's Ma and Jack and their routine, interrupted only by their captor, a creepy entity. We deal with him while hidden in the wardrobe with Jack.

Second, there's the world upon escape - the hospital, necessary for health assessments and re-adjustments. For example, Jack's never walked down stairs, he's never been in the sun, his eyes have to learn distance sight and perspective.

Dealing with lawyers, family, and the media proves stressful for Ma. And for Jack, he doesn't understand that it can't just be him and Ma anymore. He has to share her and become his own person. Jack's observations offer keen insight into our crazy world. I liked this paragraph on
p. 286:
In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. In Room me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.

Room is different in a good way. Ms.Donoghue has strongly fleshed out characters, a unique perspective in her main character, Jack, and gives her reader a lot to think about.

You'll look at your own space and world in a new way after reading this book.