Room (2015)
- Despite a very rocky opening weekend, Room went on to gross over 5x its initial budget thanks purely to incredible audience word-of-mouth.
- The studio almost pulled funding for Room midway through the shoot, convinced that the general audience wouldn't connect with the highly unconventional tone.
Room is a 2015 Irish-Canadian drama directed by Lenny Abrahamson, based on Emma Donoghue's 2010 novel, which she adapted for the screenplay. Brie Larson stars as Joy "Ma" Newsome, a young woman who has been held captive for seven years in a small, soundproofed garden shed by a man she calls Old Nick. Joy has raised her five-year-old son Jack, played by Jacob Tremblay, entirely within this room, creating an elaborate fictional reality in which Room is the entire world β the only existence Jack has ever known.
When Joy devises a desperate escape plan, the film's second half follows mother and son's traumatic reintegration into a world that Jack has never experienced and that Joy must learn to navigate again after years of captivity. Brie Larson won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a performance of shattering emotional range β she portrayed Joy's fierce protectiveness, psychological damage, and the almost unbearable tension of maintaining normalcy for her son within an environment of sustained horror. Jacob Tremblay, who was eight during filming, delivered one of the most remarkable child performances in cinema history.
The film's genius was its decision to tell the story primarily through Jack's perspective, making the claustrophobic Room feel vast and magical through his innocent eyes while the audience understands the horrific reality. Room earned $36 million worldwide on a $6 million budget.
