** SPOILER ALERT **
'Room' opens with "Ma" and a boy living in a confined space they call 'Room' and from there the pleasures of this movie in order are wondering at the nature of their strange circumstances, experiencing the really truly heart-stopping suspense of the film's revelatory escape scene, then being surprised by the film's unexpected, protracted and extremely emotional second half, but these parts are greater than the whole - the movie finishes and you realise what 'Room' in fact is: a narrative-free voyeuristic "these are the sorts of things that happen when" checklist.
★★★☆☆
CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW
