Room

I have included unwanted information about the ending, it's not direct, therefore I don't really know if it is a spoiler or no OK, first of all, I can understand that this movie has such a low rating. But I'm afraid I can't agree with it. The movie is somewhat very different from what people are used to see. I saw this movie at LIFFe which is a film festival held at the city where I live. I wanted to see this movie because it is supposed to be experimental.

The film itself has a very minimal approach, which I would blame on the budget. But it's not my job to go into technical specs. The movie takes on a completely different approach, the movie does not answer questions that are raised, this is why it is unique. Some people find it horrible to watch because the movie is somewhat more visual and there is very little dialog. The movie leaves everything to your imagination and along the way it gives some small hints which may steer you. I really loved the ambient that the movie creates, the sound scape was great. If you wish to see a movie that obeys no logic and obeys no formula for making a movie, I think this is what you should go and see. It is an experiment more than is a film.

Rating 7/10

Do not be fooled by the appealing look of the DVD box. Beware of what is inside. Before you know it, you will have lost pieces of your soul to the producers and directors of this movie. R is for ridiculous. O is for "Oh god! What a waste of time." O is for zerO motivation. M is for movies that suck! We crown this one queen. Waste your time. Try to figure out this plot, and you might suffer a brain aneurysm. The best part of this movie was reading the comments on this site and knowing we are not alone in our absolute DISGUST for this brainless, plot less, mind sucking movie. There are not enough words in the English vocabulary to express the distaste I feel for this film.

I think it should be said that the quality of this film depends on what you're hoping to get out of it.

On one hand, there is a very cerebral character to this movie; there is a tension in figuring out what is actually happening to the character even through the end. The script and cinematography work well towards this end, and the movie doesn't seem to force any particular perspective on the viewer.

There is something to be said, however, for pronounced direction in a story. To say that this movie is slow, confusing, unsatisfying, or just plain boring would not be to make an unfounded assertion.

It all rests on what you expect Room to be...

Well, at least this movie was short - only about an hour and ten minutes. Yet I still want to kick myself for wasting that much of my life on this movie. I'm not one to bash filmmakers - I can appreciate the effort in almost anything. But when you make me sit and wait and wait and wait for some kind of reason for the existence of the film, let alone any kind of resolution of the story, and you leave me with nothing, then I'm just plain annoyed. I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I tell you there's almost no story at all here. If you read the synopsis provided by the filmmakers, you already know the whole story, what little there is. Films like this are what give indie film a bad name. Though Cindi Williams gives a credible performance as the lost-soul heroine of the movie, there is no other redeeming quality I can find here. I felt this movie was a complete waste of time.

If you like films with beginnings, middles, and ends, this is not for you. There is much to like about parts of this film. The acting is good, the cinematography is good, the music and sound design is excellent, and the editing is very good. Still, I would have preferred going to any trailer park in Texas and drinking beer with the residents. The film is so much like real life that it makes me long for real life instead of watching an imitation. I don't need to pay to see banality on screen when I can walk out the door and see it for free, and in a more interesting, interactive way. This would have made 2 excellent experimental films of about 8 minutes each. This is not a "message film," but rather a very long mood piece, and unfortunately, all of that was conveyed by the movie poster. "Room" reminds me of Richard Linklater's first feature film, "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books." I disliked that film for many of the same reasons, and now Linklater is one of my favorite directors. I hope the same will happen with this filmmaker.