Room

For years, after being kidnapped at age 17, a young woman is held captive in a shed. As a result of her captor’s abuse, she becomes pregnant and gives birth to her son, Jack. Room begins on Jack’s fifth birthday. Jack is a typical child in very atypical circumstances, but he doesn’t know anything different. He interprets the world through his experience, and his mother does the best she can to make it a place of learning and excitement.

Both of them have to readjust their understanding and expectations when they gain their freedom and life is completely different. Brie Larson is fantastic as the young mother; young Jacob Tremblay is perfect as Jack. The movie is based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, who also wrote the screenplay. It stays true to the mood and warmth of the novel. In spite of a grim premise, and some sequences that demonstrate the grim reality of their experience, this movie is suffused with a childlike awe and wonder at being alive, even when life isn’t what it should be. Rated R for language. (A24 Films)