Well here is an hour and thirty-nine minutes I will never get back, thanks to my son! The Room is, in my humble opinion, the weirdest attempt at real film making that you will ever come across! It's been a couple of months since my son aggravated me enough to sit down and watch this "movie", and I'm still not sure what the hell it was really about, or even if it was real or a bad dream.
Tommy Wiseau is somewhat of an enigma. He completely funded this film on his own which is estimated to have cost around $6 million, as well acting as a first time writer and director. No one knows how he came upon his money, his age, or his national origin. He did say in 2017 that he was from the Polish city Poznan. Wiseau also claims an age that would put his date of birth around 1969, though that is not really believable based on his appearance.
The Room is based on an unpublished novel that Wiseau wrote in the 1990's that follows Johnny (Wiseau) and his increasingly bored girlfriend Lisa (Juliette Danielle). As Johnny spends more time at work, Lisa decides to seduce Johnny's best friend, Mark, played by Greg Sestero. Greg attempts to hold Lisa at bay, albeit, not very well, for most of the film. The film concludes with Greg and Lisa admitting their love for each other to Johnny who is unable to take the news.
This film is filled with gratuitous sex, and the worst line delivery you will ever see or hear. Not to mention that every scene just seems disjointed and without any merit at all. My son was also very pleased to point out to me that almost every picture frame in the film was filled with photos of spoons! Yeah, spoons. Believe me, I couldn't make this shit up!
As if all of that wasn't bad enough, you also have Denny, a young neighbor boy played by Philip Haldiman. Denny is quite possibly the most disturbing characters I've ever seen on film. Not to mention that I was always expecting him to join Johnny and Lisa in their awkward love making. They seemed just seconds away from inviting him into their bed every time Denny was on screen.
There was just so much unbelievable stuff going on in this film that it almost made me cry because I could not believe what I was seeing. As you can imagine, this film has been bashed by nearly every film critic in the world. However, it has become somewhat of a cult-classic, having midnight showings all over the world. Now, I will never put it up there with the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I can't believe others are so loose with that comparison, but it has gripped the minds of many of today's youth, including my son.
As a bit of irony, Greg Sestero wrote a book about the making of "The Room" entitled "The Disaster Artist", which went on to be an Oscar winning film by James Franco. While Wiseau initially claimed this film to be his masterpiece, after he saw it was being viewed as a laughing stock, he claimed it was always a comedy. Of course this just lent to the enigma that is still Tommy Wiseau.
I'm not sure that I feel comfortable recommending this to anyone who is not bent on seeing "The Disaster Artist", but it is acceptable to anyone over 16. I give it a half star. This film is really just so stupid that it's funny.
I never really saw the movie in one setting. Humorously enough, my son is the one who loves it because it is so bad, and instead of trying to get me sit down and watch it all at once, we chose to see the Disaster Artist together. That was an enjoyable film and made Wiseau out to be somewhat of a sympathetic, if psychotic, villain/anti-hero/idiot, lol.
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