Title – The Room (2003)

Director – Tommy Wiseau (feature debut)

Cast – Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman, Carolyn Minnott

Plot – Soon to be married to the love of his life, Johnny (Wiseau) finds his life crumbling around him when he discovers that his fiancée Lisa (Danielle) is cheating on him with his best friend Mark (Sestero).

“You betrayed me! You’re not good. You, you’re just a chicken. Chip-chip-chip-chip-cheep-cheep”

Review by Eddie on 05/12/2017

I’m really not sure how you even begin to review Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 feature film The Room aka the infamous “Citizen Kane” of bad movies.

A feature that’s reputation is now the stuff of movie legend and is being examined on the big screen with James Franco’s soon to be released The Disaster Artist, everything I had heard about The Room is absolutely true and it’s hard to argue against the fact that this dire relationship drama, filled with background spoons, games of catch and randomly worn tuxedos is one of the worst films to ever receive a proper release.

Everything about Wiseau’s passion project (that inexcusably cost over $5 million to make) is beyond amateurish.

Dialogue is often out of sync, camera’s at times aren’t even in focus, the acting ensemble deliver performances that should be studied by any potential actor on an example of what not to do, while The Room’s actual plot and characters are both incredibly dull, boring and wholly unlikeable.

Set almost exclusively in a singular apartment in San Francisco, The Room’s plotline that focuses its attention around Wiseau’s Johnny relationship with Juliette Danielle’s detestable fiancée Lisa, who is in fact cheating on Johnny with his “best friend” Mark (played by Greg Sestero who looks incredibly sad to be a part of the film) is so unbelievably dull and pointless that it’s hard to know why anyone would’ve read this script and thought they wanted to be a part of it, other than the fact the idea of a pay-check was too good to pass up.

The Room quite literally has one of the most unlikeable ensembles ever seen in a motion picture, with our central trio joined by the likes of Philip Haldiman’s creepy Denny and Carolyn Minnott’s annoying Claudette to help create a group a people you’d hate to be stuck in a room with, let alone a film that outstays its welcome at just over 90 minutes.

This whole bizarre experience however acts as one of the most determined cases of wannabe filmmaking ever seen with Wiseau clearly holding onto his vision throughout the whole process as both a performer and director.

From reports it seems as though Wiseau thought he was making some type of epic rumination on love and life, a modern day Tennessee Williams with the powerful drama of a Rebel Without a Cause and to watch Wiseau try and play Johnny while his film crumbles around him is a sight to behold, a train-wreck you can’t turn away from (even when Wiseau decides to show off his de-clothed body) and the very personification of someone’s dreams crumbling right before your very eyes.

Final Say –

A film that could be made by a group of high school students for a few hundred dollars, The Room is just unbelievably rough, amateurish and downright hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

If The Room was in fact one giant big in-joke then it achieved all it could ever have hoped for, while if it indeed was Wiseau’s genuine attempt at making something of power and note, this dire feature deserves its high ranking reputation as one of cinema’s greatest ever failures.

0 red dresses out of 5