The Room (2003)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
"The Room" is an electrifying American black comedy about love, passion, betrayal and lies. It has five major characters, Johnny, played by Tommy Wiseau is a successful banker with great respect for an dedication to the people in his life, especially his future wife Lisa. Johnny can also be a little too trusiting at times which haunts him later on. Lisa, played by Juliette Danielle, is the beautiful blonde fiance of Johnny. She has always gotten her way and will manipulate to get what she wants. She is a taker, with a double personality, and her deadly schemes lead to her own downfall. Mark, played by Greg Sestero, is a young, successful and independent best friend of Johnny. He has a good heart, but gets caught up in Lisa's dangerous web and gives in to temptation. This eventually brings him to great loss. Claudette, played by Carolyn Minnott, is the classy, sophisticated mother of Lisa who has had disappointing relationships in her life. She wants her daughter to be married as soon as possible so she can benefit. Denny, played by Philip Haldiman, is an orphan boy, naive and confused about life, love, and friendship. Denny is a very ambitions and also very grateful tot he people who are in his life. "The Room" depicts the depths of frienships and relationships in one life and raises life's ral and most asked question: "Can you ever really trust anyone? Enter "The Room" and leave forever changed! - Actors:
- Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman, Carolyn Minnott, Robyn Paris, Mike Holmes, Dan Janjigian, Kyle Vogt, Greg Ellery, Kari McDermott, Jennifer Vanderbliek, Daron Jennings, Frank Willey
- Directors:
- Tommy Wiseau
- Producers:
- Tommy Wiseau
- Writers:
- Tommy Wiseau
- Genres:
- Comedy, Drama
- Collections:
- A History of Films about Film: Part 2, A Brief History of Film...
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Reviews (3) of The Room
This movie is a fucking masterpiece - The Room review by Gilly
absolutley the best thing I've seen in my life. It's so awful it transcends bad and becomes a work of art. everyone should see this movie.
Must see - The Room review by AT
It really is so bad it’s a joy to watch??. And watch with friends ??. Go on. From awful acting and dialogue to bizzare set pieces, you’ll laugh so much.
Either a work of total genius/hilarity or one of the most narcissistic things ever committed to film - The Room review by TB
When I first heard about The Room, it was spoken about in almost revered terms: this was a film which was either an incredibly seriously-made drama with unintentional hilarity due to it's appalling acting & directing by it's ego-manic star; or it was a work of genius, fooling people into believing it was profound when it actually was anything but, whilst it's creator cackled in the only way he knows how.
For me however, it is actually something else, although with a lot of the 1st view in the mix: Wiseau did set out to make a serious drama which was unintentionally hilarious, but he was also completely genuine in his want & at times desperation to be seen as/deliver an incredibly profound performance. The other caveat with this is that (when you know the full behind-the-scenes story as told by Greg Sestero,) Wiseau had at his disposal for a big chunk of the production a highly professional & competent crew who he treated atrociously & then proceeded to burn through 2 more of when the 1st team quit en masse. His treatment of the actors was also equally as bad, but most of them couldn't afford to quit. In the grand scheme of things, it was only Wiseau's vast wealth that meant this movie even got out of pre-production.
But when it comes to the actual film, how much fun you have with this is almost entirely down to the individual viewer. I've given it 3 stars because as much as I had some serious laughs & fully embrace it's idiosyncrasies, it also at times is very hard work to watch, plus the endless repetition of certain lines didn't get funnier as the film went on. For example the constant "Oh, hai!" was funny the first couple of times, but then it just was like: OK is there anything else you can say to start a sentence with? And the multiple protracted sex scenes again just feel like padding which wasn't funny & become quite monotonous.
However, when this movie is great, nothing beats it. Whether it is the numerous subplots which go nowhere, the unbelievably bad line delivery by Wiseau, the terrible film sets/CGI or the end freak-out by Wiseau that sees him trash a room with the same effectiveness as a frail 100-year old man, it is hysterical. And the vanity of all of it just makes it even funnier. Wiseau fills his screen with actors who go from an attempt at emotion to standing in the background looking like they just wandered onto the screen by accident & decide to stay in order to not draw attention to themselves, giving Wiseau center-stage to humiliate himself.
This film is also full of more quotable lines than Withnail & I and Snatch put together. My favourite, delivered by Lisa's mother about a devastating health diagnosis, is brilliant precisely because of how the actress was directed to say this line. And the response from her daughter was just the icing on the cake. But the most well-known/the one most people will have seen in some context, is the "I did not hit her" line. It is both terrible & brilliant at the same time.
The best way to watch this film is with a group of mates, on a Friday night, preferably with lots of alcohol & enjoy the hell out of it. Despite my star rating, I will quite happily watch this film & have seen many deconstructions of it as well (YouTube The Room nostalgia critic for the best IMO.) But with some trimming to the run-time/removing a couple of the idiotic sub-plots (there are SO many that the fun won't be impacted,) this could have been actually a lot snappier in the grand scheme of things.
But in its own way, it's still a riot