Rent The Oak Room (2020)

Stagey drama goes nowhere fast - The Oak Room review by Alphaville

Touted as a horror film with ‘shocking violence’, this is anything but. Just watch the trailer. It consists of people telling shaggy dog stories in bars. You hope they’re all going to tie together at some point, but it’s all so boring you probably won’t hang around to find out. A tense score attempts to add atmosphere, but this is little more than a dialogue-heavy, over-written play that belongs on the stage.

S0-so wordy drama set in a bar in snowy Canada, eh... - The Oak Room review by PV

OK so this is low budget stuff, mostly set in a bar with various people relating shaggy dog stories. But then I have seen Hollywood movies do the same, with multiple flashbacks and the issue of how reliable - or not - storytellers are being central to plots. Tricksy scripts can be deeply annoying and unsatisfying, however, irrespective of the film budget.

It's NOT BAD - all a bit of a damp squib, to be honest. Also it is confusing, and nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. This probably was a stage play or should have been maybe.

Ticks the boxes a bit. The main character is played by RJ Mitte who plays the disabled son in Breaking Bad - like that character he has cerebral palsy (is such authentic casting REALLY always necessary? Maybe people can try acting?). All good so far BUT what that character has supposedly done and the relationship with his father etc would rather suggest he is able-bodied. I found that clunky. In acting, appearances matter a lot, re disability, race, gender - pretending they do not is silly.

But actually, this may be the first film I have seen since Lawrence of Arabia which features not ONE woman or female character at all.

Not one to watch if you're after gory horror and violence really (watch TV drama Hannibal for that). But passes the time and some nice writing as well and character development.

So 3 stars