Room- The importance of perspective in making likeable characters.

Movie Review- Room (2015)

The room is an excellent novel, written by Emma Donoghue, written in the perspective of a young boy as he and his Ma escape the shed in which they were held captive in for seven years. The novel has a big heart as the curious child explores the world and lets his imagination run wild. There is no way that you couldn’t love exploring the world through his eyes as his child-like innocence makes him loveable, endearing and adorable. It is for the above reasons that the novel has took the literature world by storm with everyone from your mum to your Great Nan falling in love with the story.

The movie is the novel in all beats but one: by putting the story into third person it looses all the nuisances and heart that made the novel amazing. Because we do not experience the world as him but instead watching him, the audience loses the sense of wonder, imagination and endearment that the novel greatly captures. Many a movie has had to adapt a first person narrative to the big screen, but for a novel that is so rooted in childhood mentality it was nearly impossible for the film to capture the books magic fully. As the actor is a child, who for a child puts on a stellar performance that is out of this world amazing, his age limits the ability of nuisance acting that allows the audience to gain insight into the characters thoughts just from a look. Maybe if extra time was given in the first third of the movie to allow the audience longer to think about the child’s imagination and for the actor to have more time to express facially what is going on in his head rather than moving on so quickly, then a little more of the novels magic would be found here.

The lack of insight into the child’s mind means he comes across as irritating and not as cute as the novel. In addition, Brie Larson’s Ma is equally unlikable as without the child’s admiration and the audience being able to properly comprehend how she is his world, the characters more likeable qualities are glossed over. Though the characters irritating qualities would probably be accurate in the awful situation that the story places the two characters in, when a story relies heavily on the two leads as they solely carry the movie for a large chunk of the run time, it is imperative that the audience finds themselves understanding and supporting the characters: a feet much easier achieved in a first person narrative. Because of the situation, the audience will always have sympathy for the two characters, but without living through their perspective it is harder to like them.

No matter the perspective, the story is still a gut punch and a heart wrenching watch. With every twist and turn you don’t believe it could get darker but it does. Each actor does very well in their performances and there are many stand out moments of excellent acting. It is most certainly a must watch. However, the phenomenal book looms over the film making it seem like a poor imitation for forgetting the books best qualities: it’s heart, imagination and innocence through the child’s perspective. Without the above aspects the film feels rather hollow as its long run time is spent untangling the books narrative in film form rather than engaging with the characters and presenting their personalities. When watching the film it is hard to pinpoint aspects of the two leads personalities because the time is not taken to establish them further than the fundamentals forced by the situation.

In a world where it feels movies topple books in popularity and success, it’s good to be reminded that some stories are best told through and are only capable in the medium of a novel.