Most critics respond warmly to Room, finding a moving account of maternal love that handles its harrowing premise without sensationalism. Praise centres on Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay: their believable mother-son bond gives the drama its emotional force, with Larson’s layered performance and Tremblay’s imagination and resilience repeatedly singled out. The reviews also credit Lenny Abrahamson’s attention to the child’s perspective and his inventive use of the confined setting with making the material bearable without softening its horror.
Reservations concern how fully the adaptation delivers beyond those performances. Some otherwise enthusiastic reviews note technical shortcomings, script problems or touches of sentimentality, while the broader spread runs from wholehearted praise to qualified disappointment. The Telegraph finds the film less powerful than the novel, despite its leads. The Wrap offers a sharper dissent, arguing that the tidy, polite storytelling reduces the impact even as the performances remain persuasive.
R
RogerEbert.com
16 October 2015 · ★★★★/4 · Susan Wloszczyna
100
The film is a soul-searing celebration of the bond between a parent and child under unbearable circumstances. It excels through the believable connection between Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay as Ma and Jack.
The film is a heartbreaking yet life-affirming parable of parenthood and maternal love, brilliantly directed and superbly acted by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.
The film is powerfully affecting with remarkable performances from Larson and Tremblay; it is an emotional epic about parenting that yanks at the heartstrings.
The film transmutes a lurid true-crime premise into an astonishing fairy tale of survival through maternal love and imagination. Abrahamson and the lead actors create a powerful seesaw of love and horror, with exceptional performances from Larson and Tremblay.
The review calls Room a wrenching but ultimately uplifting watch that finds warmth and hope in a harrowing premise. It singles out Jacob Tremblay's extraordinary child performance and Abrahamson's skillful direction for making the confined setting cinematic and emotionally resonant.
The critic praises the film as brutally raw and moving, with Brie Larson delivering a standout performance as the resilient mother Joy. The direction by Lenny Abrahamson is noted for grounding the story effectively despite its conventional feel compared to his earlier work.
The critic finds the film a moving, life-affirming drama focused on motherhood and love rather than retribution. It singles out the stunning performances by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay as the standout element.
The critic describes an ultimately uplifting experience realized with care and restraint from the child's innocent viewpoint. It highlights the director's tactile, close-up empathy in handling the story of captivity and escape.
The review calls it a nuanced, minor-key portrait of trauma that is deeply moving in its examination of how adults explain the world to children. It singles out Brie Larson's tremendous performance as the mother who must be strong until she cannot.
The story centers on a mother and son held captive in a tiny shed, with the child's perspective providing purity and buoyancy. Jack's resilience and imagination make the film bearable and emotionally resonant.
The review praises the powerful, sensitive survival drama and its exploration of the worlds parents create with their children. It singles out Brie Larson's raw, harrowing performance for particular acclaim while noting some directorial shortcomings in technique.
The critic describes the film as a moving, harrowing and redemptive drama about the ties between mother and child. It highlights the performances of Brie Larson and especially Jacob Tremblay, along with the director's inventive approach to the confined setting.
The adaptation retains emotional impact as it shifts from survival thriller to a drama of loss and reawakening, thanks to strong performances especially from Brie Larson. It offers a powerful metaphor for captivity and gradual emergence into the world.
Brie Larson delivers a revelation in the lead role alongside stunning newcomer Jacob Tremblay. The film is a strong festival entry centered on the mother-son dynamic in captivity.
The film is a tough but tender tribute to the creative power of maternal love, never sensational or saccharine. It excels through the intimate mother-son chemistry and performances by Larson and Tremblay, focusing on resilience and care amid horror.
4 September 2015 · festival review · Todd McCarthy
The adaptation is involving and moderately heartwarming but does not reach the higher levels of psychological insight and emotional profundity to which it aspires. Strong performances by Larson and Tremblay provide art-house draw, though the claustrophobic material may deter many viewers.
The critic calls Room a hopeful, touching and profoundly moving film that avoids salacious impulses, instead offering a unique perspective through the young son's eyes on the mother-son bond and escape from captivity. It singles out the visual composition of the room and the standout performances by Brie Larson and especially Jacob Tremblay for praise.
Abrahamson fashions the source material into a visually inventive, genuinely moving and understated drama of captivity and hope that pays tribute to creative maternal impulses. The superb lead performances from Larson and Tremblay create a credible and touching relationship amid the grim circumstances.
The film delivers an accessible yet profound and uplifting experience despite its grim premise, thanks to its focus on the young boy's perspective. Abrahamson keeps the tone understated and naturalistic while highlighting the performances and the story's emotional depth beyond the escape sequence.
The review describes the film as a miraculous adaptation that turns a harrowing premise into a cathartic fable of hope and resilience seen through the child's sheltered perspective. It praises the nuanced mother-son bond, human details, and the lead performances by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay as breathtaking.
The film is a deeply moving and suspenseful drama that emotionally devastates while centering a mother-son love story and the challenges of reintegration. The transformative performances by Larson and Tremblay are astonishing and revelatory, though the script has minor hiccups and the ending is slightly treacly.
Room is a truly beautiful work on the bonds between mother and child and the human capacity to transcend dire circumstances. Abrahamson keeps the focus on the child's perspective, delivering emotional rewards through strong lead performances without lapsing into the maudlin.
The critic deems Room a beautiful and humane response to inhumanity that cannily adopts the five-year-old son's point of view to reveal wonder in confinement before shifting to themes of resilience and the outside world. It singles out the great child performance by Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson's layered acting for praise while noting a minor flaw in the score.
The critic finds the film good but frustrating as it flirts with greatness without consistently hitting its emotional mark beyond the two leads' performances, which are astounding. Praises the lead performances for providing the film's emotional core.
The critic finds the film's tidy, polite narrative flawed and diminished in potency, preventing it from fully resonating. The sensitive portrayal of the characters' transition is elevated by the brilliant, tour-de-force performances of Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.
A potentially sensational premise is handled with grace and incisiveness in this adaptation. The film maintains a firm grasp on the characters' turmoil and the selflessness of devotion, with standout nuanced performances from the two leads.
Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate
