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Review: The Room (2003) ★

<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">The upcoming release of James Franco’s <em>The Disaster Artist<&sol;em> &lpar;2017&rpar; has breathed new life into the mystique surrounding Tommy Wiseau’s <em>The Room<&sol;em>&period; Franco’s film&comma; based on the novel of the same name by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell&comma; chronicles the conception and chaotic production of <em>The Room<&sol;em>&comma; shedding some light on its subsequent cult status and the strange man behind it all&comma; Tommy Wiseau&period; The film has developed a following as a result of being &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;so bad its good&comma;” and that could not be more true&period; I feel obligated to give the film a one-star rating because&comma; frankly&comma; it is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen&period; It is a complete car crash from top to bottom&comma; but therein lies its appeal&period; Much like a car crash&comma; it is impossible to look away&comma; and <em>The Room<&sol;em> is truly a film that must be seen to be believed&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">The plot&comma; and I’m playing it fast and loose with the term&comma; follows Johnny &lpar;played by writer&sol;director&sol;producer Tommy Wiseau&rpar;&comma; who lives with his future wife&comma; Lisa &lpar;Juliette Danielle&rpar;&period; However&comma; Lisa proclaims to her mother that she doesn’t really love Johnny&comma; and proceeds to initiate an affair with Johnny’s best friend&comma; Mark &lpar;Greg Sestero&rpar;&period; Meanwhile&comma; Johnny’s young neighbour&comma; Denny &lpar;Philip Haldiman&rpar;&comma; who looks up to Johnny as a father figure&comma; falls into debt to a drug dealer&comma; and must be rescued by Johnny and Mark&period; As Lisa becomes increasingly brazen about her affair with Mark&comma; Johnny seeks the help of a psychiatrist to guide him through his strained relationship&period; The final act sees Lisa’s sociopathic behaviour having dire consequences for Johnny&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">While the above summary <em>almost<&sol;em> sounds like a coherent plot&comma; I assure you that this is not at all the case&period; The story &lpar;to say nothing of the technical aspects of the film&rpar; is rife with inconsistencies&comma; bizarre digressions&comma; and undeveloped subplots&period; There is frequently dialogue that is both grammatically incorrect and out of place within the context of the scene&comma; as well as behaviour and acting that hardly feels human&period; Tommy Wiseau simultaneously overacts and looks as if he is half asleep in every scene&period; The sound design is horrendous&comma; with much of Wiseau’s dialogue requiring poorly executed voiceover recordings&period; The production was marked by frequent walkouts and firings&comma; unnecessary expenditures&comma; and a complete ignorance of proper filmmaking practices&period; If this entire debacle sounds ripe for comedy&comma; that’s because it is&semi; <em>The Room<&sol;em> will make you laugh until you cry&comma; or simply shake your head in disbelief&comma; but either way&comma; it is difficult not to be entertained and mesmerised by such a supremely horrible film&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1109" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1109" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1109 size-large" title&equals;"Wiseau freaking out" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;maxresdefault-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1109" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Tommy Wiseau really gets into the role&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">This brings me to the mastermind and driving force behind the entire project&comma; Tommy Wiseau&period; With stringy black hair and the perpetual look of someone who just emerged from a week-long bender&comma; Wiseau is not your typical leading man&period; When he speaks&comma; it seems as if aliens have hijacked a human body and are struggling to make it function correctly&comma; in respect to both his unidentifiable accent and outlandish mannerisms&period; But this is also what makes watching <em>The Room<&sol;em> a somewhat depressing experience&comma; as Wiseau is an incredibly pitiable figure&comma; to say nothing of his terrible filmmaking&period; Little is known about the man himself &lpar;or how he managed to fund a &dollar;6 million film on his own&rpar;&comma; but much can be learned about him just by watching his magnum opus&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Something that becomes increasingly apparent as one watches <em>The Room<&sol;em> is that it is a vehicle for Wiseau’s ego&period; He plays a successful banker&comma; who is a romantic and passionate lover to Lisa &lpar;despite her transgressions&rpar;&comma; a commendable father figure to Denny &lpar;despite his transgressions&rpar;&comma; and a loyal and trusting friend to Mark &lpar;despite his transgressions&rpar;&period; He attempts to wax philosophic and tries desperately to achieve a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;cool guy” persona that is far beyond his reach&period; Without even reading anything about the making of the film&comma; it is obvious that Wiseau based Johnny’s doomed relationship on real events &lpar;or at least his perception of real events&rpar;&comma; and that the film functions as a kind of misguided letter to his ex-girlfriend&comma; as if to say&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Do you see what you did&quest; Look how terrible you were to me&excl;” The whole thing wreaks of a high school teenager deep in the throes of a bad breakup&comma; unable to express their feelings in a way that is anything but cringe-worthy&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1110" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1110" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1110" title&equals;"The Room Love Scene" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;Johnny&lowbar;and&lowbar;Lisa&lowbar;1&lowbar;0&lowbar;509600a&lowbar;0&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1110" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The love scenes are strangely repetitive&comma; even to the point where sequences later in the film recycle shots from previous love scenes&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Herein lies the issue with the many &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;fans” of <em>The Room<&sol;em>&comma; as well as the book and upcoming film chronicling its making&period; For the most part&comma; people are making fun of Wiseau&period; There is no denying it&period; I laughed to the point of tears while watching it&comma; but&comma; despite mixed reports from Wiseau himself&comma; it is pretty obvious that he took this project very seriously and never intended it to be anything less than an emotionally gripping erotic thriller&period; I am not a medical professional&comma; nor do I think I am capable of diagnosing anyone &lpar;especially someone that I have never personally met&rpar;&comma; but it seems apparent that there is a disconnect between Wiseau and reality&period; When a film is this bad&comma; and a performance this bizarre&comma; and the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;message” of the movie so blatantly try-hard and sad&comma; it is hard to find any cause other than mental illness&period; It sounds as if I am making a joke&comma; but even as I laughed at the film&comma; I couldn’t hold back an intense feeling of sadness and pity for Tommy Wiseau&period; I have been around enough people with mental illnesses to know the signs&comma; and it just seems clear that we are all laughing at a man who is deserving of sympathy&comma; not ridicule&period; The problem with this&comma; of course&comma; is that it is very rare for someone with a serious mental illness to secure these kinds of funds for a film&comma; and then to write a script that is so personal to themselves&comma; inadvertently showcasing their mental state to the world&period; It feels as if he is begging to be ridiculed&comma; but that doesn’t make him any less pitiable&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Again&comma; I don’t want to overstep my bounds by assuming without a doubt that Wiseau suffers from some kind of mental illness&comma; or pretend that I am not culpable in mocking him&period; Perhaps he is just eccentric and completely lacking in self-awareness&period; Either way&comma; I cannot pretend that I haven’t become fascinated by his persona&comma; his film&comma; and the unintentional comedy that has arisen from his work&period; It is one of those films that you will probably want to watch again and again&comma; and go tell all your friends to watch&comma; too&period; Even though this is possibly the worst film I have ever seen&comma; I cannot recommend it highly enough&period; Everyone should drop what they’re doing and go watch <em>The Room<&sol;em>&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Rating&colon; &starf; out of 5<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Room<&sol;em> is available to purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B000CFYAMC&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B000CFYAMC&amp&semi;linkId&equals;15eb770cdc95bdf80578d56951601227">here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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