An Intellectual Response to The Room, Part 1
By Me
“Oh, hey.” I want to begin by stating what a piece of cinematic brilliance The Room is. Tommy Wiseau (1) is a genius! The Room is the story of a love triangle between Johnny (Wiseau), his "future wife" Lisa, and his best friend Mark.
A major theme you will see throughout the movies is Johnny represents all thing good and Lisa represents all things bad. Further proof is that Jesus starts with J, just like Johnny. Who do we know whose name starts with L? That’s right! Lucifer. Lisa = the devil. Having this knowledge will help you through the film and life. You might find yourself asking “What would Johnny do?” You should always buy roses, toss around a football and ask about your friends’ sex lives.
There are a few “criticisms” (2) of the film. I will comment on a few of these.
Here is one: While the film is rife with continuity errors and several other minor cinematic drawbacks, there are several plots, subplots and character details whose inconsistencies have often been pointed out by critics and audiences. The Portland Mercury has pointed out that a number of "plot threads are introduced, then instantly abandoned" (3,4). Wiseau obviously did this on purpose. He wanted you to think about these instances and not show you how you should react. For example, in an early scene, halfway through a conversation about planning a birthday party for Johnny, Claudette off-handedly tells Lisa: "I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer." The issue is casually dismissed and never revisited during the rest of the film. The meaning behind this is obvious; in real life cancer is something people don’t like to talk about. By not mentioning it the rest of the film Wiseau is holding up a mirror to his audience and asking us to reflect on the issue. Also, if Lisa is the devil (which she is) then it comes to reason that all women in this film should not be trusted. So, Claudette might be planting lies, you know, doing the devil’s work.
Another issue is a scene in the middle of the film where Johnny, Mark, Kevin, and Denny dress up in tuxes and toss a football around while standing only a few feet away from each other. Some people may be confused on why they do this, besides obvious: showing off Mark’s clean-shaven face. As we know, men do not like to dress up, so it stands to reason the women made them do this. To fight off the evil oppression the women (most likely Lisa “You’re tearing me apart Lisa!”) have thrust upon them (though Wiseau does the majority of thrusting in this film) the men do the most manly (5) thing they can do, toss around a football. What would Johnny do? He will toss around a football and hug on Denny and dote on Lisa (6).
If you have not seen The Room I would recommend dropping whatever you are doing now (besides reading this intelligent thesis) and get your hands on a copy on the film and watching it right away and then a second time. If you have seen it, watch it again you will so many new levels, Wiseau says so, and he plays Johnny, so do it.
1 - Actor, Writer, Director, Producer
2 - Misunderstandings
3 - Wikipedia
4 - Portland Mercury article: "Tommy Wiseau: The Complete Interview(s)”
5 - And fun
6 - Though we later find out this is the wrong decision.
(The title of this post comes from the Song "I Will" by Clint Gamboa, from the illustrious soundtrack from the motion picture "The Room")
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