Room: My Strong

Warning: Spoilers (For the film, and the book)

Room is a film based on the book of the same name, both written by Emma Donoghue, and directed by Lenny Abrahamson who was so passionate about directing the film that he wrote a letter to Donoghue herself to ask to make it. The start of the film is an almost perfect adaptation of the book that it was a total joy to watch; to see these things I'd read about come to life, with the perfectly cast Jacob Tremblay playing Jack and Brie Larson playing Ma, or Joy Newsome as we learn in the film. It's brilliantly acted, directed and though I was slightly distracted in the second act by the differences in plot and themes it was still brilliant to watch. So instead of just discussing the film I will talk about the things it missed out too, not as a value judgement of the film – any book adaptation with so much to cover is almost certainly going to lose a large portion of its plot – but as a need to discuss the book and how it relates to feminism.

I would obviously not read this if you haven't watched the film but especially if you want to read the book I'd come back afterwards, and then we can have a lovely little chat about how great it is. I read Room in two days so I could watch the film and it was extremely easy to do that because it reads so well. I admire Donoghue in how she adapted her work to the screen, the second half changes setting dramatically due to the fact that there is a lot of time spent in places, and with a lot of characters, and it simply wouldn't have worked. It changed a lot about the motivations for one of the key things in the film/book – seriously, spoilers: Ma's suicide attempt; for instance in the book it is the TV interview that causes her to question herself to the point of attempting to take her own life, the suggestion that she didn't do what was best for Jack whereas in the film it's a lot of things – from her fighting with her Mum, to a shortened interview, and to problems adjusting to her old life.

However, Room is an utterly brilliant adaptation as it captures the same themes that the book does: from Jack in all his glory, to Ma in all of hers, and to all the complexities of male violence and the damage it causes. I will say now however that my only problem with the film – aside from it removing characters of colour in one area for no apparent reason – is that it ever so slightly tries once to humanise Old Nick; it's only a brief moment, as Jack is pretending to be dead, but he stops in his garden and looks bad, looks sad for Joy and what's she's lost and to me that was unncessary. Film's understandably have a harder job than books do at getting certain themes and emotions across but this is one thing that should never, even slightly be in Room. Old Nick is not a redeemable character, and as much as it's is hard to hear there are men like him in the world who are just not redeemable either.

Old Nick is not based off nothing, he's based off quite a few men in the history of this world who have committed similar atrocities: abducting a woman, or fathering a woman and keeping her locked up in a room for a very, very long time – and often when that woman is in that room raping her repeatedly and, often, impregnating them as is our opening for Room. There are men who day in day out, second to second, happily keep a woman locked up, as though she is literally not human and use her as a plaything. It happens in a world that, yes, is patriachal and it happens because men are told each day, every day since birth that they are entitled to the half of the population that are weaker than them, and who are routinely dehumanised for times such as that. It's not rocket science, it's not complicated, there is no great humanity flaw that causes men to keep commiting violence – it's patriachy.

But what I would rather talk about when it comes to Room though is the brilliant Jack and Ma, those who are hurt the most by male violence but that, as Room shows, can still say fuck you and bloom all the same. Jack is five as we start the film, his fifth birthday even, and whilst he has spent his entire life in Room it is no problem for him; after all how can you miss what you never knew existed? As we see it is actually Jack coming into the world, his mind bursting at trying to understand an entire universe that he never knew was real that is Room's focus. Again, there are sadly humans in this world who have lived lives like Jack, who have been hidden from humanity and have had to learn to adjust – though not all were as lucky to have Ma. In the book Joy was adbucted when she was 19 though in the film, presumably to adjust for Brie Larson, it was when she was 17. Both of which are insanely admirable, as we get a teenager, thrown into an impossible situation and yet when her world is changed again she adapats and survives as women are wont to do. She uses what she learnt in school – bringing Track and Phys Ed into their world – and she teaches it to Jack.

It's this amazing mothering, this strength of mothers to do all they can in their power – no matter their lack of it – to raise their children that is a testemant to women. Ma teaches Jack how to talk, using the TV to help and increase his vocabulary, she teaches him maths, how to write and draw, and even teaches him how to sew and other things. It is this start in life that saves him, that helps him grow into an adorable narrator, if not one that still had the moods and tantrums that all children – and adults – have. As Ma grows up in that room she too learns new skills of survival, such as how to ask Old Nick for things that he will actually bring them, how to eat just enough to stay alive so Jack can eat more, and how to make do and mend in the most extreme of cases – Egg Snake anyone.

In a world where women are routinely and daily killed, abused, degraded, objectified in the most extreme and small sense it is important to recognise the strength that women have simply to survive; their ability to be human, and to keep what makes them human, in the face of male monsters. Women live in a world where acid is thrown on their faces and they still say fuck you you can't stop me. They're incredible, but they also shouldn't have to be as men shouldn't have created this world where they can abuse and get away with it, legally and socially in many senses. However, it's the times that women can't quite handle all of this that other women become so important, that feminism itself becomes a lifeline to help. In the book/film it's Jack that keeps her grounded, that keeps her going and in her darkest hour in the film it's what saves her, he's her strong.

Donoghue also understands the very real, physical and visceral aspect of being a mother, as is shown throughout the book. From the physical toil that her body takes from being abused by Old Nick just so Jack isn't touched, to the malnourishment she suffers to keep Jack as healthy as possible, and in a continuing theme in the book to the breastfeeding she does until not long after they've escaped. It's this last point that is only mentioned a few times in the film: her breastfeeding in Room, her mother being surprised that she still breastfeeds him – with Joy finding it ironic that out of all the things that she finds disturbing about what happened in Room it's that – and when she tells Jack that it's over. In the book Jack refers to it simply as 'some', it's never really mentioned as something that's different, and in fact the moment Jack is told that he can't have any again he simply kisses her breasts and says bye. Her body kept producing milk for years because Jack needed it, because there wasn't enough food for Jack to keep him going, and it's fitting with the rest of the book/film as Ma's literal being is what keeps Jack alive.

In the film rather than the book when they escape Jack and Ma go and live with her mother and her partner Leo; her father is briefly there though he doesn't stay as he selfishly puts his feelings at being weirded out by Jack's existence over being there for his daughter who has returned from, what he thought was, the grave. Whereas in the book Jack and Ma spend a couple of weeks in a rehab clinic – with Noreen and Dr Clay and all the rest- and then after the TV interview – done to get money for Jack's college fund – that causes Ma to attempt suicide Jack goes on his own to stay with Grandma and Leo. This changes the second act of the film dramatically, it causes us to see a different side of all characters; though it does mean Jack finally gets to hang out with a dog, make friends, and see his mother's room – unchanged since she was taken (though in the book it's a fitness suite as Joy's mother assumed she was dead).

In the book I enjoyed their time at the clinic is an as much as it was interesting to see Ma attempt to rediscover the world, who she was and how she fit into it – like when she tries to e-mail her old friends only to realise that they, and technology, moved on without her. But also the little things about what it does to a person to never go outside for the first five years of their life; Jack needs to wear special sunglasses, have vaccines, wear a mask. He suffers a cold for the first time, he is petrified of rain, and the wind freaks him out. It's as Dr Clay says in the book, he's like a baby but one who can add up and articulate his emotions. It's an extremely compelling read and as someone who has a degree in Childhood Studies it really reminds me why I love teaching, the sheer joy children can be and how amazing it is to show a big, often weird and wonderful world to them.

There are also lots of funny little things in the book that happen when Jack leaves Room and one of those is how often he's mistaken for a girl. It's understandable when one of our shortcuts for what sex a stranger is is long hair but it's one that Donoghue understands can be funny and arbitrary – though as I've mentioned sex is important as it is Ma's female sex that brought him into this world and thusly kept him alive. There is a moment in the book when Jack, whilst Ma is recovering away from him, that he goes to the shops with his Uncle Paul, his wife Deanna and their daughter Bronwyn – characters not in the film for time purposes I assume – and it's another moment that made me laugh, if not a little bitterly. Jack has his long hair as per and whilst they're shopping he sees a Dora backpack and it is the most amazing thing he has ever seen, he loves Dora the Explorer; he watched it a lot in Room, he loves that she knows his name, he hates naughty Swiper, and he sees any language that isn't English as being Spanish as a result. So he just has to have it, and there's a moment where Paul doesn't want him to have it because Dora is For Girls, he tries to wave a Spider-man bag at Jack but Jack is having none of it. It was amusing to think that gender is so arbitarily encoded into their adult brains that they thought a kid who'd grown up in one room would care that Dora is For Girls and that spider-man is For Boys. Jack is Jack, a boy because his body says so and that means nothing more than that.

Room is a brilliant film, so touching and entertaining despite it's horrific subject matter. Its a great display of how strong women and children are in the face of male violence, of how precious life can be, and of the bond between mother and child. If you haven't already I seriously suggest you read the book, it's a joy to see the world through Jack's unique eyes and it only betters the already amazing film. It's great to have a real, complicated woman on film – one who struggles, who survives, and who is thoroughly human. We don't get to see women be human on screen as much as we should, instead they're often see as disposable as Old Nick see's women, simply there for sex and not for talking or anything else. I look forward to see more from Larson and Tremblay and I hope that this film helps us get that little bit closer to getting rid of the Old Nick's of this world and creating it that little bit more in Jack's image.