December 12 - ROOM by Lenny Abrahamson (Ireland, Canada) @ Kino Svetozor (Prague, Czech Republic), 13:30

In comparison to other weeks, this has been quite subpar in terms of attending screenings for me, particularly since I have moved to Prague. All my various projects and work kept me well busy, and I will also take this opportunity to apologize for the lack of content on CineCola in the past while - it didn't help that Webnode was down for a while over the past week as well. 

My choice of films was limited for Sunday, early afternoon, but I was very eager to watch ROOM by LENNY ABRAHAMSON, not because it is an Irish co-production, but also because I have never seen a LENNY ABRAHAMSON film on the big screen before - unless you count a special screening in a college classroom of ADAM AND PAUL, which was part of a masterclass with its screenwriter. 

I believe ROOM is the most straight up dramatic film in ABRAHAM's career, aside from perhaps WHAT RICHARD DID. Which is a shame. I always loved the way he is able to hit you with the drama in his stories with plainness but also an element of surprise that is the result of the sense of humour. In his best works, it is almost as if he were translating a sense of "Catholic guilt". At first, we laugh at the absurdity of the character's flaws, and then feel very guilty for laughing at them because usually it is an evidence that they are broken in one way or another. And I personally fall for it every time. 

In comparison, hence, ROOM is a lot easier, less challenging, and sometimes even a bit overdone on the melodrama side. It's still powerful, but nowhere near as impressive as, say, FRANK which was only released last year. Which is why it will probably be more successful than FRANK at this award season. As far as the screening is concerned, I actually got the impression people were bored. 

Even I thought the film was a little over stretched, but the guy sitting on the row behind mine was absolutely keen on showing the hardship he was experiencing by methodically and regularly puffing, at least once every five or six minutes. Poor fella. Maybe he thought he was going to see a special screening of Tommy Wiseau's film by the same name.