Like most of my fellow millennials, I became consciously aware of great child performances beginning with Haley Joel Osment in 1999’s The Sixth Sense.
This would pave the way for child actors of the 21st century such as Nicholas Hoult (2002’s About a Boy), Miranda Cosgrove (who broke through in 2003’s The School of Rock), Abigail Breslin (Oscar nominated for 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine), Hailee Steinfeld (also nominated for 2010’s True Grit), Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (yet another nomination), Tye Sheridan in 2013’s Mud, Woody Norman in 2021’s C’mon C’mon, and the more recent discovery of Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later.
Then, there is Jacob Tremblay. Within ten years, he was in the likes of 2017’s Wonder (my little sister’s first date movie), Luca, and The Little Mermaid remake, just to name a few. Yet all that started with his enormous impact in 2015’s Room.
His role was no easy task. He plays the role of Jack, who has spent the first five years of his life inside of a single room. This is sadly due to his mom, Joy (Brie Larson), being kept as a sex slave in the shed of “Old Nick”. The film details Jack’s soon discovery of the situation, and eventual escape into the real world.
There have been some haters of sorts over the years of Brie Larson. I’m not sure if it has to do with anything in her personal life or her role as Captain Marvel in the MCU (regardless of how you feel about those films, she still does a solid job in the role). It’s when people say she can’t act that I laugh. Even before this, she was in the likes of Scott Pilgrim vs the World and the vastly underrated Short Term 12.
She didn’t win the Oscar for Best Actress for nothing here, and the scene where she runs to Jack in the car is as tearjerking as anything I have seen in fiction.
Obviously, this is not an easy watch of a film, so parents, keep the kids away from this one.
Even with the subject matter and the totally mood shift midway through, the film is still spell binding. I will go to my grave thinking Jacob Tremblay was robbed of a Best Actor Oscar nomination (even though he would have been passed over by the inevitable win of Leo in The Revenant). He is the glue that holds the film together, making that rare case for film to be both hard to watch yet hard to keep your eyes off of.
(As of this writing, Room is available to rent on Amazon and VOD).
Nothing else to say 