Capturing Room: Film or Book?

I know that technically we weren’t supposed to watch the movie Room, but I was curious to see how they approached the escape scene in the film. I mean, I didn’t watch the entire movie so there’s that. Anyway, if you’re interested here’s the clip for the scene I will be referencing, but I’ll try my best to describe so you don’t have to watch it. Now, let’s get down to business.

We’ve all read the escape scene in Room and each have our own way of imagining it. It’s especially difficult to picture exactly what is happening since the only things we see are through the eyes of five year who has literally no knowledge of anything in the Outside. So, not only are we on the edge of our seats wondering whether Jack will escape, but we are also trying to dissect exactly what is going on. For instance, when Jack jumps out of the truck and is trying to run away, I imagined him jumping off, falling, then running like half a block away and spotting the pedestrian.

In the film, however, everything is similar but wrong in a way. Old Nick isn’t as old as I had imagined and Jack doesn’t have as long of hair as I thought he would. Another thing, I pictured the escape happening at night, but the scene is shot in the middle of the day. When it comes time for Jack to get out of the truck, everything slows down. When I was reading Room, it seemed like everything was happening too fast to really process it and to see everything slow down threw me off.

The filmmakers were probably trying to play up the drama and intensity of the scene by adding slow motion, but I think the quick pace used in the novel actually makes it more realistic. When you are in a confusing and chaotic environment, it’s unlikely that you’re going to remember the details, especially in the case of a five year old. Similarly, by adding the slow motion, it seemed like the filmmakers had to cram in the other details so that the slo mo didn’t make the scene last forever. For instance, what I had imagined as a half block run turned out to be a ten foot stumble.

To clarify, Jack jumps out of the truck, falls, get up, slightly runs 10 feet, is grabbed by Nick, and then suddenly a guy and his dog is right there. That’s another weird thing about the guy and his dog; instead of being bitten by the dog, it’s more the dog barking and jumping and the guy looking confused (understandably). Then, one of the lines that captured the interaction (guy saying, “I don’t like this” and then calling the police) was cut! Rather, the guy just asks some questions and Nick freaks out before leaving.

When comparing these two, it’s clear that the book version is much better. The movie did a great job trying to replicate it but it can’t quite capture exactly what’s going on in Jack’s head without exposing its adult undertones. That’s an aspect of the book that is implied and we as readers work to figure out. In the film, everything is more in your face and it ultimately takes away from the book was trying to accomplish.