The Room - DVD

While the film suffers from a screenplay as delusional as its characters, this thriller serves up some potent images and a juicy premise. With each rising action, The Room creates new opportunities for something deep and ethically interesting. But unfortunately and vexingly, all of this is squandered at nearly every turn. In spite of its messy third act, The movie is not a lost cause. What it does well, it does really well, and the trapped concept makes it a perfect watch on one of these lonely evenings in. Too creepily inspired to be dismissed out of hand, but too lousy to be actively enjoyable. The film could have been a disturbing psychosexual rumination on "The Monkey's Paw." Instead, the subject matter is treated for shock value. And that's disappointing. "The Room" comes with a soft recommendation. Bizarre and 'Twilight Zone'-ish. basic plot: Kate and Matt are a young couple in their thirties in search of a more authentic and healthy life. They leave the City to move into an old house in the middle of nowhere, lost in Maryland. Soon they discover a secret hidden room that has the extraordinary power to materialize anything they wish for. Their new life becomes a true fairytale. They spend days and nights indulging their every desire of material possession, swimming in money and champagne. Yet beneath this apparent state of bliss, something darker lurks: some wishes can have dire consequences. That room could very well turn their dream into a nightmare when it gives them what they've been waiting forever and that nature was denying them...

While the film suffers from a screenplay as delusional as its characters, this thriller serves up some potent images and a juicy premise. With each rising action, The Room creates new opportunities for something deep and ethically interesting. But unfortunately and vexingly, all of this is squandered at nearly every turn. In spite of its messy third act, The movie is not a lost cause. What it does well, it does really well, and the trapped concept makes it a perfect watch on one of these lonely evenings in. Too creepily inspired to be dismissed out of hand, but too lousy to be actively enjoyable. The film could have been a disturbing psychosexual rumination on "The Monkey's Paw." Instead, the subject matter is treated for shock value. And that's disappointing. "The Room" comes with a soft recommendation. Bizarre and 'Twilight Zone'-ish. basic plot: Kate and Matt are a young couple in their thirties in search of a more authentic and healthy life. They leave the City to move into an old house in the middle of nowhere, lost in Maryland. Soon they discover a secret hidden room that has the extraordinary power to materialize anything they wish for. Their new life becomes a true fairytale. They spend days and nights indulging their every desire of material possession, swimming in money and champagne. Yet beneath this apparent state of bliss, something darker lurks: some wishes can have dire consequences. That room could very well turn their dream into a nightmare when it gives them what they've been waiting forever and that nature was denying them...