YouTubeBooks are really having a moment in Hollywood right now. This past week alone has seen an influx of trailer releases for tomes-turned-movies, with blockbusters like Leonardo DiCaprio's The Revenant and John Krasinski's 13 Hours. It's a good time to be an author who's sold their book rights to a studio. And today's new trailer for Room is no different...except for the fact that it's a story completely unlike the others.
The flick is an adaptation of the novel by Emma Donoghue, which was basically the book club title of the last few years. If you gathered with a group of friends to "discuss" literature over wine and snacks, you read this book. And with good reason—it's captivating and disturbing, if slightly over-the-top. Now, let's play a little book club game called What's the Plot. Join us, won't you?
The book is told from the perspective of a five-year-old boy, Jack, who lives with his mother in what they call Room—and it's just that, one single room. That happens to be underground with no access to the outside world. Oh, and he's never been outdoors (or out of Room) in his entire life. Creeped out yet?
Readers slowly learn that Jack's mother was kidnapped as a young girl and Jack is the child she had with her captor. Despite the severe trauma, his mother tries desperately to protect him from learning the truth about the lives and to give him the most normal routine as possible. They have daily activities that include "physical activities" like push-ups and jumping on the bed, story time, and scream time, where they yell as loud as they can for as long as they can. (Yes, scream time is exactly what you think it is, and it's not even the most disturbing part of their day—we'll leave that to the imagination).
The two eventually develop an elaborate escape routine that involves Jack playing dead and jumping from a moving truck (yes, he's five). But that's where the real trouble starts. As you can imagine, it's a big adjustment to go from being held captive in an underground room for years, to living out in the world—and as the subject of a major news story, no less.
The original book was based on a combination of several kidnapping stories, and it seems that the movie version is sticking pretty darn close to the book's chain of events. The trailer is just as sad and scary as one can imagine, with a seemingly perfectly-cast Brie Larson (last seen as Amy Schumer's sister in Trainwreck) as the mother. Audiences are given a glimpse of Room, cement walls and single window and all, as well as Scream Time and Jack's dramatic escape. If you feel like not sleeping tonight, give it a watch. Or better yet, read the book yourself ahead of the fall release.