Room
A24 | Release Date: October 16, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
86
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
39
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Total FilmNeil SmithJan 11, 2016
A prize-winning page-turner becomes a moving, harrowing and redemptive drama about the ties that bind a mother to her child. Be warned: one box of tissues may not be enough. Read full review
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanNov 17, 2015
The two most frightening concepts in Room, one of the most remarkable movies of 2015, are freedom and the lack of it. Read full review
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 11, 2015
In someone else's hands, Room easily could have become a horror movie. Instead, we get an emotional roller coaster ride -- at turns touching, harrowing, crushing and flat-out beautiful...Along the way, Abrahamson's Room becomes an immensely rewarding film, and the kind of movie that promises to stick with audiences long after the closing credits roll. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 29, 2015
Amazingly - and this movie is amazing - Room is a story of hope, of possibility. Sure, your stomach will be in knots, your fingers clenched, your heart racing. But it will also fill that heart with a sense of the goodness, the courage, the enduring love that is out there to be discovered - and to be held onto with the fierceness of life itself. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 29, 2015
Room is a film of tiny little miracles. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 29, 2015
With visual and psychological precision, Abrahamson brilliantly evokes the experience of living outside of everyday reality. And he does so without resorting to either creepiness or sentimentality. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 22, 2015
As wrenching as Room is, especially during its grim first hour, it contains an expansive sense of compassion and humanism thanks to the sensitive direction of Abrahamson. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 22, 2015
It just might be the most impressive piece of filmmaking I’ve seen in 2015, and it features a great lead performance by a rising star, a memorable supporting role by a familiar veteran — and one of the most amazing acting jobs by a child I’ve ever seen. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 22, 2015
Room unfolds with the privilege of seeing and experiencing the world for the very first time, which is maybe the best we can ever expect from a medium like the cinema. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 16, 2015
Room is astonishing: It transmutes a lurid, true-crime situation into a fairy tale in which fairy tales are a source of survival. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 15, 2015
This drama is as big as all outdoors in scope; poetic and profound in its exploration of the senses; blessed with two transcendent performances, by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay; and as elegantly wrought as any film that has come our way in a very long while. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 15, 2015
Larson has done exceptional work before... but the way she has taken the deepest of dives into this complex, difficult material is little short of astonishing. The reality and preternatural commitment she brings to Ma is piercingly honest from start to finish, as scaldingly emotional a performance as anyone could wish for. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedOct 13, 2015
Too grim and heartbreaking for some viewers, Room is nevertheless an extraordinary film so powerful and unforgettable that it must be seen. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 8, 2015
Room is more than the title of one of the year’s most powerful movies — it’s a state of mind that’s unbearably tense and as claustrophobic as a straitjacket Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 3, 2015
Room is a startling movie experience, peculiar in setting and profoundly simple. It's a story of love born out of unseen horror, of nurture conquering nature. Room must be felt to be believed. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 29, 2015
Boosted by award-caliber performances and a perfectly struck tone, it becomes one of the more moving dramas of the year and an early, dark-horse award-season contender. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnSep 5, 2015
Director Lenny Abrahamson seamlessly translates Donoghue's work into cinematic terms with his relentlessly compelling adaptation. However, the drama owes just as much to its two stars, Brie Larson and newcomer Jacob Tremblay, whose textured performances turn outrageous circumstances into a tense and surprisingly credible survival tale. Read full review
91
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 5, 2015
Room is simply a movie about mother and son trying to adapt to the outside world after years of forced captivity. And the surprise is how succinctly it captures this drastic life change from the perspective of five-year-old. Read full review
90
Screen DailyTim GriersonDec 3, 2015
Director Lenny Abrahamson has made a deeply moving story about how adults try to explain the world to their children — even when they don’t always understand it themselves. And Brie Larson gives a tremendous performance as a mother who must be strong for her boy, until she suddenly can’t be anymore. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 22, 2015
Room is a terrific movie, one that has two outstanding performances, confident direction and a story line that is both harrowing and moving. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonOct 13, 2015
Lenny Abrahamson's shattering drama Room borrows its fictional plot from the tabloids and strips it of sensationalism. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 4, 2015
Room is ultimately not something you’d readily call enjoyable, but it is a cathartic and provocative reminder that life is full of possibilities and outcomes. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 30, 2015
Room is honest and challenging but it’s more uplifting than one might expect from a film with such a horrific backstory. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldConnie OgleOct 29, 2015
The real trick, of course, was casting the perfect child actor to carry the heavy load, and Tremblay is a wonder. The smart camera work helps highlight Jack’s perspective, but Abrahamson has also coaxed a genuine, marvelous performance out of the kid that’s key to the film’s emotional weight. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 28, 2015
The story takes a surprising turn midway through, a change in direction that deepens the experience for the viewer, making us culpable in at least part of the misery these two face. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 15, 2015
Room deserves to be seen unspoiled. All you need to know is that the performances of Larson and Tremblay will blow you away. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaOct 14, 2015
An intensely felt cinematic experience. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianOct 11, 2015
The film, never sensational or saccharine, is a tough but tender tribute to the creative power of maternal love. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayOct 14, 2015
On their own, each segment of Room is tense and emotional. But they’re even better placed back-to-back. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsJan 11, 2016
Tough, but resilience is amply rewarded. If last year’s larky Frank suggested Abrahamson was a director to watch, this makes him a director to be cherished. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonDec 3, 2015
Brilliant and moving stuff; another hit for Abrahamson. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensOct 15, 2015
Though it goes to places as dark as any you could imagine, Room carries at its heart a message of hope: Two people in four walls can create a world worth surviving for, if they love each other enough. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichSep 6, 2015
If Abrahamson were as gifted with a camera as he was with his cast (he inspires subtlety even from the tiny Tremblay), Room could have been truly worthy of the astonishing performances that provide its foundation. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangSep 6, 2015
It’s a testament to the story’s underlying integrity that, even when deprived of some of the elements that made Emma Donoghue’s 2010 book so gripping, director Lenny Abrahamson’s inevitably telescoped but beautifully handled adaptation retains considerable emotional impact. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 5, 2015
There are some plausibility issues in Room, but this is a disturbing and absorbing film, shrewdly acted, particularly by Larson. It lets the audience in; it does not just let the nightmare stun them into submission. You make a real emotional engagement. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 22, 2015
The parent/child relationship at the movie's core is endlessly fascinating. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 5, 2015
Room has unforgettable, must-witness performances, and its soulful mother and son narrative is one of the most touching dynamics you’ll see in theaters this year. Read full review
70
TheWrapInkoo KangOct 19, 2015
Larson excels at determined despair, simultaneously evincing vulnerability and fearlessness. It’s an exciting, tour-de-force performance by an actress who announces herself as one of the best of her generation. If only the film around her were as bold. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 6, 2015
Overall, it’s a decent shot at a tall target, but real credit is due the lead actors, with Larson expanding beyond the already considerable range she’s previously shown with an exceedingly dimensional performance in a role that calls for running the gamut, and Tremblay always convincing without ever becoming cloying. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 15, 2015
While it flickers with grace and imagination during its initial half, largely because of Jack, it devolves into a dreary, platitudinous therapy movie in its second, largely because of Ma. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 16, 2015
It ought to be a triumph. Somehow, though, it lacks the flooding emotional force Donoghue gave it on the page. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 22, 2015
In the end, the film shakes down as a kind of eat-your-spinach exercise, a movie that’s worthy and perhaps good for you, but is labored and only enjoyable intermittently. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithOct 14, 2015
Dopey as the film is on a plot level, it’s equally vapid in its psychology. Read full review
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