1082. The Room (2003)

Starring: Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero

Director: Tommy Wiseau

Running Time: 99 mins

The Room is an American film about a man whose future wife is secretly cheating on him with a friend, leading him to go into a downward spiral of madness and depression with no hope of getting her back to marry her.

This isn’t just terribly badly made, as its infamous popularity would suggest, but it’s a really tedious film. Whether it’s a black comedy or a drama gone wrong, it’s absolutely appalling, with some terrible acting, directing and writing, particularly in the inconsistent and ridiculous script that leaves you either confused or laughing your socks off at everything that happens.

Let’s start with the problem at the centre of this entire wreck: Tommy Wiseau. The director, lead actor, producer, writer and executive producer is arguably the reason this is such a terrible film. I’m sure that Wiseau has managed great things outside of this, but it remains a fact that The Room is appalling, and it’s his fault.

For starters, his acting is appalling. From a complete disregard for the actual tone of any scene to a simple inability to remember his lines properly, it’s a car crash that’s at least entertaining to see, but by means not impressive.

What’s more is that the story, which has the premise of a standard romantic drama, is totally preposterous. It doesn’t help that random plots are introduced and then immediately forgotten about every now and then, but the simple fact is that the way that Wiseau devises the plot is ridiculous. His future wife, played by Juliette Danielle, has the most inconsistent personality ever seen on screen, being occasionally loving and caring, and sometimes completely insane and almost evil, and whilst that may be to show her as a backstabbing, horrible person, it comes across as forgetful and incompetent writing on Wiseau’s part.

The production values of this film aren’t particularly terrible, but against a $6 million budget, it’s not a great use of funds. The green screen on the rooftop is too visible, and whilst the room itself does resemble a real room, it’s probably the blandest and most tedious setting for a film ever, not helping in any way to get the viewer more engaged in this poor story.

The rest of the cast isn’t godly or anything, but their performances are at least fine. They suffer from poor dialogue and not having much interesting to do, and whilst they aren’t particularly convincing, they’re not laughably bad.

This is therefore a brilliant reminder of how hard a profession filmmaking is. It’s not something I could ever do, but it’s unfortunately something that Tommy Wiseau really failed to do here, seen by the tedious, ridiculous mess that is The Room, and that’s why it gets a 1.8 from me.