15 Awesome Films Since 2000 You'll Never Watch Again
10. Room
Plot:
A mother and son's escape from their captor and come to terms with their horrific ordeal.
Why It's Awesome:
This is a well-written and genuinely powerful drama and the acting from Brie Larson and child actor Jacob Tremblay is fantastic.
Why You'll Only Watch It Once:
This is another movie you'll admire but not necessarily enjoy. Inspired by the horrifying true-life Fritzl case, this is both a disturbing account of captivity and an even more upsetting look at how hard it is to adjust to the outside world again.
In the scenes within Room, there is some optimism due to the love between the mother and son, but it's very clear Joy (Larson) is psychologically destroyed by her ordeal and is only trying to keep her spirits up for her son's sake. This first half is downbeat from the word 'go' and their subsequent escape is also very hard to watch due to how narrowly it succeeds.
The second half is even more distressing as Joy suffers a mental breakdown and eventually attempts to kill herself. Room is rewarding because of its depiction of the strong love between Joy and Jack and they eventually have a happy ending, but the ordeal they've been through is too upsetting to experience more than once.