Room - The Film Through The Eyes Of A Parent

There are fewer annoying phrases than "you'll see when you have children of your own" or "you don't have kids so you wouldn't understand". These phrases are patronising and perhaps makes one's audience feel ignorant, hinting that they don't have the ability to extrapolate their emotions onto what it may actually be like if one were to have children. 

One such occasion was when I recently watched "Room", the Oscar nominated picture which tells the story of a young lady and her son who are in captivity. Based on the novel with the same name, Emma Donoghue tells the brilliantly distressing story of the struggles a parent has to go through to ensure the wellbeing of her child. As my readers would know, this is a complete first for me. I don't write reviews and my blog is not here for that purpose, but this film has had such a lasting effect on me, I just had to run a commentary on it. I found myself shifty in my seat minute-by-minute, constantly holding back the tears and desperate to get of the cinema so that I could call my daughter to tell her how much I love her (I'm really selling it aren't I?).  This film is emotional whether you are a parent or not. There was something so raw and distressing, which as a father just played on my emotions in a way that I have never experienced before. It was horrible. Stressful. Disturbing. But bloody brilliant. It's a wonderfully worked film. I'm not very arty, but to my mind the acting, screenshots, etc etc were all so believable and beautifully congruent. There was something in that film which made me realise the impact of being a parent. I know I love my little girl, but after watching Room it became,somehow, even more apparent, even more tangible and distressingly real. Watch it. Feel the emotion. Experience the fear and then give your little one the best goodnight kiss they have ever had!

This is what it looks like after one has watched Room: