In a nutshell, it’s a film about the survival and endurance of a young mother (played by Brie Larson) and her 5 year-old son (played by Jacob Tremblay - who is quite remarkable) who had been kept captive by horrible “Old Nick” (Sean Bridgers) in a small garden storage building for a prolonged period (the mother had been held there for 7 years and her son was born during her captivity) – with no access to the outside world except a television. Their only “visitor” was Old Nick. The mother does everything she can to bring up her son educated, healthy and happy… but, clearly, this is desperately difficult in such circumstances. Ultimately (*spoiler alert!!*), they do escape (although, I have to say, it did all seem a little implausible to me... and I do have a number of questions along the lines of "why on earth didn't you try to do A or B?"!) and it’s then all about adapting to the world that the mother had left behind… and that the son had never known.
It’s excruciatingly uncomfortable to watch. It’s disturbing.
On the one hand, it’s an uplifting endorsement of the human spirit’s ability to survive such ordeals; on the other, it’s utterly depressing that there are some very sick individuals who are prepared to inflict such suffering, mental torture and physical abuse.
It’s an impressive, harrowing film and one that has rightly been acclaimed by many critics (and a number of our friends).
I’m pleased that Moira encouraged me to see it but, I have to say, my overwhelming response during the film (yes, during!) went something like this: “will the actor playing the 5 year-old boy ever recover from his traumatic experience on the film set?”.
I suspect he’ll become rich and famous and won't care, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the scars remained. I certainly wouldn’t have let my son or grandson play the role.
But, hey, as I’ve said before… “what do I know?”.
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