So, I know this isn’t related to this short story class, but last year in Hero's Journey, we read Emma Donoghue’s Room. I have written blog posts pertaining to this novel in the past, but if you don’t want to scroll back (I won’t judge), here’s a brief synopsis of the book: The book is told in the perspective of a five year old boy named Jack, who lives with his Ma in Room; a secured single-room garden shed containing a small kitchen, bathtub, wardrobe, bed, and TV set. Jack was born in Room, so he believes that only Room and the things it contains are real. The two are constantly visited by their captor, Old Nick, who brings them necessities every Sunday. Nick kidnapped Ma when she was only seventeen years old, and has kept her imprisoned for the past seven years; Jack is the product of Old Nick’s rape of Ma. The book begins at Jack’s 5th birthday where Ma begins explaining to Jack that there is an entire world outside of Room. She then devises a plan to get Jack out of Room so he can get help. She pretends Jack is sick when Old Nick visits, but he just tells her that he will get medicine. So, when he comes back with the drugs, she pretends that Jack has died and needs to be buried somewhere far away from Room. Jack, who has been rolled up inside of a rug, is then transported into the back of Old Nick’s truck, and taken away from Room. Per Ma’s instructions, Jack then rolls out of the rug and runs to the nearest person, who then contacts the police. In spite of his fear, confusion, and inability to communicate effectively, Jack directs the police to Room to free Ma. The two and then taken to a mental hospital, where they receive medical evaluations and a temporary home. Ma and Jack are then reunited with Ma’s family as they struggle to learn (relearn in Ma’s case) how to interact with the larger world. Jack feels overwhelmed by new experienced and people, stating that he only wants to return to the safety or Room. Meanwhile, the case has attracted a lot of attention from the media, making it even harder for Jack and his mother to start living a normal life. After a television interview that ends badly, Ma suffers a mental breakdown and attempts suicide. Jack then goes to live with his grandmother and her new partner for several days. The rest of the book basically discusses how Ma and Jack learn to readjust to the outside world. It is a very powerful book and I would recommend it to anyone who’s willing to read a heart wrenching story.
Room was published in 2010, and was written by Emma Donoghue, who drew her inspiration for the story after hearing about five-year-old Felix in the Fritzl case. In 2015, there was a film adaption, starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, with Larson winning the Oscar for Best Actress. Now, I just recently watched the movie and wanted to write this post explaining the similarities and differences between it and the book. Even though the script was co-written by Emma Donoghue herself, there still were some changes that made me unhappy.
First is that the most poignant aspect of the novel is that it is told in the perspective of Jack, a five-year-old boy. Because of this, we are given this innocent view of a horrible situation. If we were given Ma’s perspective, we wouldn’t be reading everything in such a positive light. But, in the film, the perspective of the story jumps from being on the outside to Jack’s perspective. Although I don’t know how successful the movie would have been if it was entirely from Jack’s perspective (mostly because that would be a considerably hard thing to accomplish), but it definitely disappointed me a little, being a huge supporter of the novel.
Another difference was Old Nick. Now, in the book, Old Nick is presented as this looming shadow that haunts Ma. Jack is scared of Old Nick and stays away from him, but only because Ma says he should. In the book, we never see Old Nick’s face, giving the feeling that he is this faceless monster who lurks in the shadows of Room. But, in the movie, we do see Old Nick’s face. In fact, we even jump to his perspective when he hears Jack making noise in the wardrobe and therefore proceeds to approach the wardrobe until Ma distracts him. Although, in a way, it’s nice to give Old Nick a face in the movie, I definitely think it didn’t capture his true, dark personality as well as the book did. Giving Old Nick this faceless character added to how horrible this whole situation was.
Finally, after Jack and Ma get out, I felt like the rest of the movie was rushed. In the novel, half of it is dedicated to Jack and Ma inside Room, and the other half is them adjusting to the outside. The movie is about two hours long, and I’m just sure exactly how they split it up, but it felt like an hour and a half focused on Ma and Jack in Room, while the last thirty minutes showed them outside of Room. Because of this, valuable scenes were lost, especially scenes of Jack interacting with things outside of Room. (For readers of Room, the scene where Jack goes to the mall is totally lost. Also, the bond that forms between Jack and Leo is also fairly absent...sorry if this is a spoiler).
All in all, although I liked the film adaption, I feel like, since I read to book before hand, I already knew what was going to happen, so I just criticized the movie while watching it. Although some scenes were left out, I think the filmmakers did a decent job recreating the book. (Assumably because the author was helping them). I would definitely recommend reading the book before watching the movie (as it usually is in all cases with books and film adaptations), because the book creates a more poignant atmosphere. The movie kind of rushes things, while the book takes its time and really submerges you into Jack’s world. All in all, it is well worth the read and was worth it to watch as well.
I haven't (yet) seen the film, and I voiced some of my skepticism in class, when we learned that the film was in production. On the one had, I can easily see the appeal: the escape scene, in particular, would surely make for riveting cinema, and that's a part of the novel that's impossible to put down.
ReplyDeleteBut you know that I'm with you, in seeing Jack's narrative voice as key to the novel's weirdly compelling representation of a nightmare scenario. Trying to re-create that effect in a film might well have been possible, but it would have been a more "experimental" or "difficult" kind of film that would have deliberately confused its audience--not the kind of thing that usually garners an Oscar. Instead, we get Triumph of the Human Spirit (not that that isn't part of the novel, because it is), which tends to be Oscar bait.
It's interesting that they made a movie of this book considering much of our class discussion touched on the idea of media capitalizing on really traumatic events and the excitement the public can find in such horror stories. It's especially weird since you say they cut more of the public/media's interest in Ma and Jack out of the movie to focus instead on the action of the escape. It makes sense from a financial standpoint, I guess, but it's still kind of weird knowing that this was based on a true story. I can also see how, from a filmmaker's perspective, telling the story entirely from Jack's point of view would perhaps not be the smartest move, but I agree with you that trying to make sense of the world through Jack's eyes was my favorite part of reading it, particularly the games he and Ma played and even the way his language differed from that of a normal 5-year-old due to his circumstances.
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