From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie The Room released in 2003.
Starring:
Tommy Wiseau, Greg Sestero, Juliette Danielle
Directed by:
Tommy Wiseau
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
R
Budget:
6 million dollars estimated
IMDb Rating is currently:
3.5
My Rating:
6.2
The Synopsis is:
Johnny and Lisa are happily soon to be married, until one night Lisa decides she is bored with Johnny and wants to ruin his life by sleeping with his best friend Mark.
*THE REST OF THE REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. *
Enjoyment:
When I first saw the poster for this movie, I thought that this was going to be a film about a serial murderer and the room is where he does all of his creepy stuff.
I was wrong. It’s absolutely nothing like that at all.
The film was meant to be a drama, but there are so many problems with the film, that it is actually pretty funny and surprisingly enjoyable.
It’s definitely a guilty pleasure.
Pacing:
At 1 hour and 39 minutes it felt like 2 hours… especially in the middle of the film. There are a lot of unnecessary establishing shots of San Francisco and moments we are watching characters do boring things in real time, like running driving, and putting together answering machines.
Story:
The story is the creation of the films writer, star, director and producer, Tommy Wiseau.
The film is a little odd because it really runs its course more like a soap opera or a play. Which makes sense because the script was originally written as a play, and then a novel.
The novel couldn’t get published so, Tommy decided to finance and shoot it as a film.
The title of the film as explained by Tommy, was meant to evoke a safe place where a person could do anything they wanted. And if it were a play, it would have taken place in one setting.
In the film it’s the living room in the main character, Johnny’s duplex apartment. There are other locations in the film, but the main activity happens in Johnny’s apartment.
Lots of people have free reign in the living room. Friends can come over to indulge themselves in a little bit of fun, the neighboring boy, Denny drops by anytime he wants and Lisa’s mom is constantly visiting there.
One of the most intriguing part of the film is the dialogue and how alien it is to our culture.
The original script was longer than what was actually filmed. It featured a series of lengthy monologues that were too incomprehensible to appear in the film.
What did make it in the film is absolutely baffling and comedy gold not only being said with Tommy Wiseau’s unique accent and personal quirks, but by the other characters in the film as well.
We have so many famous sayings that just send me into absolute hysterical laughter, because they are simply not normal conversational phrases or the tone of voice of the actor, mainly Tommy, is just inappropriate for what is happening.
You are tearing me apart, Lisa!
You look beautiful today.
Can I kiss you?
You invited all my friends,
good thinking!
I feel like I'm sitting on an
atomic bomb waiting for it
to go off.
Anyway, how is your sex life?
Ha ha ha. What a story, Mark.
You always play psychologist
with us!
Leave your STUPID comments
in your pocket!
You, you're just a chicken.
Chip-chip-chip-chip-
cheep-cheep!
If a lot of people love each other,
the world would be a better
place to live.
I did not hit her, it's not true!
It's bullshit! I did not hit her!
I did NOT!
Oh hi, Mark.
There are also a series of repeated phases.
- 19 variations of "Oh, hi" and "Oh, hey" .
- 14 different forms of “Don’t worry” about it.
- There are 7 mentions of Johnny and Mark being “best friends”.
- Lisa says, "I don't wanna talk about it" 5 times.
- The phrases "future wife" and "future husband" are spoken 3 times and once, respectively, but "fiance" nor is ever said. Rumors say that the term “future wife” was used because Tommy was unaware or unfamiliar with the term fiance, which assists in making the dialogue seem very unusual.
There were a many reference to other films.
Johnny’s famous rampage scene is reminiscent of the rampage scene in Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941)
And I am sure you were wondering, how is Marlon Brando connected to The Room? Or maybe you haven’t but, I will tell you how.
"A film with the passion of Tennessee Williams" was a quote in the promotional material for the film that references A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), starring Marlon Brando, a play written by Tennessee Williams.
Johnny’s famous line, "You're tearing me apart!" is the same line said by Marlon Brando in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Challenge:
Move over Darth Vader! Your services are no longer needed. There is a new baddie in town.
The challenge in this story is Lisa, the evil, evil woman who is willing to destroy a man’s life just because... she can.
One night after making sweet passionate love for hours to Johnny, Lisa takes a good look at him. Somehow, she is not happy in her relationship.
They are about to be married, he treats her like a princess, showers her with gifts and works all day to support them both, while she barely even looks for work “in the computer business”.
But she wants more excitement, more engagement, maybe someone closer to her own age, a better lover, a better listener, someone she can connect with on a deeper spiritual and psychological level.
Who knows? The film doesn’t quite explain why she wants to end the relationship, but only that she’s bored.
Why doesn’t she just talk to Johnny about this and try to make their relationship work?
Why doesn’t she just leave Johnny?
She spices things up by cheating on Johnny with his best friend Mark. To Mark’s credit, she seduces him under protest, but he does give in and so the two of them maintain the lie to Johnny that everything is perfect and the two people who love him the most would never hurt him.
Her actions creates a lot of tension and provides what action we have film.
Lisa’s best accomplice besides Mark, is her mother, Claudette, who is the Matriarch instilling terrible morals into her daughter.
She talks about Johnny as if he’s a bank and Lisa is a weakling that should be happy to have him take care of her. Here is some of the ridiculous things she says and talk about setting women back into the dark ages.
“Now, you can't live on love. You need financial security.”
“Men and women use and abuse each other all the time; there's nothing wrong with it. Marriage has nothing to do with love.
One big complaint about the film that many people have a hard time with is the fact that during one of Claudette’s visits with Lisa, she casually mentions that she has breast cancer, but and it is given very little concern in the film.
And according to Tommy Wiseau from an interview, we shouldn’t be too worried about it either. Cancer is not as deadly as we are lead to believe and she makes a full recovery.
Empathy:
I have to say that I didn’t feel much empathy for any of the characters.
Johnny is a real saint. He does so many nice things for people and in several scenes he tells people that he is there for them any time they need them.
He not likeable because as an audience we can’t trust him. He displays his emotions, as up and down as they come to him. There is a disconnect because his reactions to the events of the film are not organic and relatable. In fact none of the characters are relatable.
Another, key element is that you don’t feel anything for his character when bad things happen because the film never focuses on his point of view. Despite being the main character, Johnny has less than forty minutes of screen time.
What’s it like for him at work? Everyone likes Johnny, but why can’t he get that promotion? Who is the new client he mentions to Mark and what will it mean for him to succeed? Is he facing any challenges because of his accent? Where is he from and where does he want to go in life?
We get a glimpse of that a little when Johnny explains how he met Lisa. And we really needed more of that, but with written with more believability.
Johnny’s best friend, Mark, betrays him by sleeping with his future wife.
Mark is strangely named after Matt Damon after Wiseau misheard the actor's name.
Technically Mark is part of the challenge, because he betrayed Johnny. But because he is manipulated by Lisa, the film really wants us to sympathize with him. And I kinda do…. A little, but not by much.
He’s a little flip floppy as a character.
One minute he hates what he’s doing and the next he’s fighting for Lisa. In one scene we see him brooding about what he has done and in the next he nearly kills his friend Peter when he tells him he knows their secret.
He flips in and out of character constantly. It’s almost as if Wiseau didn’t know whether Mark was a complete back stabbing jerk or a nice guy in a tricky situation.
And in reality, when someone does you wrong, they kinda fall in the same category, don’t they. But in movies, the audience needs the separation.
Technical:
According to Greg Sestero plays Mark, Tommy Wiseau was a wealthy entrepreneur and real estate developer in and around Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Tommy Wiseau financed the film by also importing and selling leather jackets from Korea.
Tommy didn’t really know much about cameras or the film industry and became confused about how to film. He shot it simultaneously on 35mm film and high-definition video. He also purchased the cameras, instead of renting them as film productions usually do, hiking up his costs.
Rumors on set say that on the first day of filming, Tommy Wiseau showed up several hours late and ironically got the project off to a rocky start by insulting the production crew, saying they were too slow and being unprofessional.
The filming took over six months and in that time, it employed about 400 people and the crew was reportedly replaced 4 times.
A big struggle for Tommy on the set was remembering his lines. For example, it took 32 takes to say his famous lines on the rooftop before noticing Mark.
After the film wrapped, the script supervisor Sandy Schklair claimed that it was he who actually handled the direction of the film. But I think it's kind of a weird thing that he would want that credit.
However, many cast members did that Schklair took charge of a lot on the set, helping Wiseau with his lines and guiding other actors.
The indoor sets of the apartment were reportedly the result of thift store display window purchase. As many have pointed out the framed spoons amongst the decor. A last minute purchase in an attempt to dress the set. No pictures were replaced to save time and so earns a place in cinema history.
Rumor has it that an actual rooftop was available but instead those scenes were shot on a soundstage, with exteriors of San Francisco green screened in.
The alley set, was built, torn down, and rebuilt, inspite of having access to a real alley.
Entire scenes were filmed in one spot and then reshot in another.
Besides that entire scenes were out of focus. These are just a few of the perils of low budget filmmaking, but with 6 million dollar budget it’s a little puzzling.
The editing was a mixed bag. In some instances it was good and others it needed to be a little more aggressive. A great example of that is Johnny’s rampage scene, which seems lethargic between the action. It should have just been action, action, action.
The score was pretty good in my opinion! The soundtrack gets a lot of hate from critics, but I thought it was just fine for 2003. It’s dated for sure. Just research 2003 Rand B and you’ll get many songs that sound like the ones in this film.
Performances:
I really think that these actors aren't bad. They just needed better dialogue and direction.
A lot of the film's dialogue was also dubbed in, which is why there are many out-of-sync scenes.
Tommy’s fever dream performance is really the pulse behind the popularity of the film, because of his odd and unusual delivery, which caught the attention of the audience.
I think that Tommy was right in believing that he was going to be the success of the film.
At one point Tommy was rumored to have said, "I have to show my ass or this movie won't sell", Which puts you into his mindset for creating this movie.
Best:
The best part of the film for me is Johnny’s birthday party… which finishes the movie.
The Ending:
The ending is tragic. After finding out that Lisa is cheating on him with Mark, unfortunately, Johnny commits suicide.
But you don’t actually feel bad at all. You kinda just ask yourself, why are these characters responding to Johnny’s death this way. It seems totally surreal.
Wish List:
Wishing on this film is kinda tricky because then it would change the magic of the film… the very reason why it’s entertaining.
But… I wish that this film removed all of the boring scenes of people getting the mail, over 10 minutes of awkward love scenes, and gone for full insanity… throw in a car chase scene, more ridiculous seductions, sudden illnesses, a funeral, a holiday dinner, a blackmailer, or a big final scene where the room blows up at the end.
Summary:
The film was off to a rocky start when a theater showing the film posted a sign for movie goers that there were no refunds for their tickets.
The film was promoted with a single billboard in Hollywood, located on Highland Avenue for over five years, at the cost of $5,000 a month, featuring that very misleading poster for the film, of Tommy Wiseau’s left eye in mid-blink. Whooo, it’s creepy.
The film got little to no traction when it was released, but much of the film’s legacy was due to the fact that Cartoon Network's, Adult Swim stopped their programing to air a censored version of the film on April Fools' Day from 2009 to 2011.
Greg Sestero, who played Mark, wrote a book about his friendship with Tommy Wiseau and his experiences making the film entitled "The Disaster Artist" published in 2013, the 10th anniversary of the film's premiere.
On the onset, this film could really appear to be a movie bashing women in general, but there are moments that you get the idea that it’s not entirely so because in one instance Mark says that women are smart, and Michelle says to Lisa that she has a different point of view and doesn't understand her.
And that’s fine because in both genders one can find cheaters and morally bankrupt people manipulating others for fun and looking to benefit themselves.
There is a lot of pain behind this story about betrayal and it is a cautionary tale about unscrupulous exploits. At Johnny’s birthday party Michelle tells Lisa that there is a psychological impact to worry about and Steven explains to Lisa that it could destroy the sense of community they have in their group of friends.
It almost feels like a cathartic vehicle for Tommy himself. And I could be wrong here, but it really seems like it. The character of Lisa is so unrealistically malicious and the character of Johnny (which coincidentally rhymes with Tommy) is so angelic. That makes you raise an eyebrow. Did we watch a man’s personal account of a painful break-up and making this film was the only way he could deal with it?
After doing some research, I discovered that Greg Sestero, had given his insight that the character of Lisa was based on a woman to whom Tommy Wiseau proposed to with a $1,500 diamond engagement ring.
Johnny killing himself is part of the breakup fantasy. “They’ll all be sorry for what they’ve done.” It’s the immature way to deal with the situation that people may think about, but seldom actually do.
It’s also a part of the reason that it is such an unrealistic moment that you don’t feel sorry for the character. You don’t connect with the story because it’s so ridiculous that you end up laughing hysterically.
And from that laughter, a viewer can gain massive entertainment and engagement, which is the entire purpose I watch movies.
It is famously named the worst movie ever made, but in my opinion, it's not. It is in a unique quadrant of movies that at some point, had potential to be a generic decent movie, but because of it’s oddities, it has become a wonderful, wonderful guilty pleasure.
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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