B-Movie Review: The Room (2003)

First and foremost, the brains (?) behind this film is a man named Tommy Wiseau.  After watching The Room, you may be tempted to, if you see him in the street some day, either club him to death or shake his hand furiously.  The Room is, quite simply, one of the absolute worst films ever made and is in fact so bad as to bring tears of laughter to your eyes.

The story is… well, there’s a story in there somewhere.  I think it goes something like this - Man loves woman, woman is evil and sleeps with his friend, man finds out and kills himself.  There’s some other stuff in there too, but it’s pretty inconsequential.  As are most of the other characters.

Wiseau wrote, directed, produced and even took the lead in this film.  His skills in all four areas are equally terrible.  He shambled through the flick half-acting, greeting everyone he sees vigorously and telling people that everything is okay.  Meanwhile, everyone else is kind of a dick.  EVERY female character is portrayed as bad in some way.  The mother is a gold-digger, the main female lead is deliberately evil and manipulative and her best friend just laughs and goes along with her as she destroys her husband’s life.

In contrast, the male characters are portrayed as being victims to the whims of these women.  Wiseau is betrayed, his friend is tempted into evil because of the wife, and even the weirdo neighbor Denny is lured in by the temptress wife’s seductive wiles.  Other male characters fall prey to the anger of their friends as they go crazy because of the plotting of one woman.

It really felt like maybe Wiseau had just undergone a huge break-up before he wrote this film, his bitterness for women bleeding through in buckets.  Or maybe he was trying to be serious?  Or it could also be that he realized he was making a pile of crap and just let it be.  The world may never know.  All that is known is that The Room is a series of inexplicable scenes, technical blow-outs (bad mics abound) and bad actors and even worse dialogue.

If you need a laugh, I suggest the using Rifftrax to enhance the film or going to a midnight showing if one happens to be in your area.  Yes, The Room has obtained the same bizarre cult status that Rocky Horror has, albeit in a much smaller amount.  Either way, I wouldn’t suggest watching it without accompaniment unless you’re a serious B-movie fanatic.

Photo Credits -           

The Room courtesy of theroommovie.com