An Ode to Bad Reels: The Room

The Room is a tremendous failed effort at making a film with an emotional message behind it.  At its core, this movie is a disastrous tale of the mental breakdown of a man who has everything in his life crashing down on him, however, through its writing and acting this turns from a romantic tragedy to a legendary comedy. This movie was released in 2003 and was written, directed, produced by and starred Tommy Wiseau. Nobody really knows the origins of Wiseau or where the inspiration from this movie came from but honestly without his memorable, atrocious acting this movie would have just been another run of the mill bad movie.

In the beginning of The Room we are introduced to Johnny (Tommy Wiseau), who has brought home roses for his fiancé (Juliette Danielle) and right away you get smacked in the face with horrible acting. I do not know how bad Wiseau’s English was during filming but I guess it was bad enough that his character’s dialog had to be dubbed over for most of the movie. Wiseau’s delivery of his lines are so awkward and misplaced it makes the dubbing even more noticeable along with the fact that he gives emphasis to odd words within the statements that do not need to be accentuated while giving very little to words that should have some inflation to them.

We then get randomly introduced to Denny, who just seems like a creepy random kid that likes to watch Johnny and Lisa hook up but later we find out he was adopted by Johnny and is like a son to him which makes his whole character that much creepier. Johnny and Lisa kick Denny out and we get the longest, most awkward and physically impossible sex scene of all time topped off with corny 80s porn music. The bad part is that we get this scene twice, as in the same exact scene a second time later in the film. This was done because the actress playing Lisa agreed to do one sex scene but after some rewrites to the script she was asked to do a second one which she rejected.  This forced Wiseau to reuse shots to create the second sex scene.

Everything seems fine in Johnny’s world but we soon learn that Lisa is bored with him and does not love him anymore (which she keeps repeating throughout the whole movie). This was revealed in the first of way too many conversation scenes Lisa has with her mother. During the conversation, Lisa’s mother also reveals that she has breast cancer which neither of the two seems to be bothered by and go on about Lisa’s issues and the cancer is never mentioned again. Lisa ends up cheating on Johnny with his best friend Mark claiming she now loves him instead of Johnny.

The rest of the movie is just a hysterical mess of bad writing and unintentionally memorable quotes all through out. There are scenes that are legendary to the cult following including the “You’re not my F***king Mother” scene, the awkward topic transition in “the coffee shop” scene and the often imitated “rooftop” scene where Johnny shows odd mood swings and apparently finds stories of women getting beaten up humorous. However, my favorite scene has to be the “Flower Shop” scene in which Johnny goes into a flower shop to buy Lisa roses.  Once he enters and removes his sun glasses the cashier says “Oh, hey Johnny, I didn’t know it was you.” A few seconds later she claims he is her favorite customer yet she still didn’t recognize him even though he is a pretty unique looking guy. This scene was in the movie obviously to just drive home the fact that everybody seems to like Johnny. Everyone except Lisa, his fiancé, that is.

Lisa is a total bitch. She is literally the worst human being ever. She is bored with Johnny and cheats on him with his best friend Mark but still leads Johnny on the whole time. That is bad enough but then she convinces him to drink vodka even though he doesn’t drink then tells her mother he got drunk and hit her and lies about being pregnant. Johnny seems like a lovable guy that everyone in the town loves yet Lisa basically ruins his entire life due to how selfish she acts. Everything that happens to Johnny towards the end of the movie is completely her fault and could’ve been avoided if she just told him how she felt from the beginning. This did lead to the amazing delivery of the line “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!”

Tommy Wiseau made The Room as a work of art expressing the effects of infidelity in a relationship. He originally wrote this as a play which then he turned into an over 500-page book that he could not find a publisher for so he turned it into a movie. He states that he titled the movie The Room because it is supposed to represent a safe place to be…yeah. He also spent about $6 million dollars of his own money to fund the film. It is said that most of the budget went to recasting after the original cast walked out on the project and film cameras that were purchased instead of renting. He is a mysterious guy and I feel like this movie perfectly captures his persona. One can say, this is Wiseau’s Masterpiece.

After the cult success of this film the actor that played Mark, Greg Sestero, wrote a book titled “The Disaster Artist” which depicts his experiences during the filming of The Room. The book has also been adapted for a movie being produced and starring, James Franco along with Seth Rogan and other notable actors. The film about the film with be released on 2017.

The Room is a consistently bad movie filled with confusing writing, atrocious acting, sub-plots that do not go anywhere and random characters that just pop into the movie without explanation from time to time. There are also one too many scenes with the male characters tossing a football to each other, Johnny chuckling at almost every situation no matter how inappropriate and unwarranted as well as the most annoying chicken imitation ever. Even with all that however this movie is definitely worth the watch.

Turn this movie on whether you are alone or with friends and get ready to burst out laughing while gaining a bunch of new quotes for inside jokes.


Like this story? Follow Reel Talk Inc. on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for daily news and reviews, and sign up for our email newsletter here.

Podchaser - Reel Chronicles
About Luis Hernandez 67 Articles
As Reel Talk’s Creative Director, Luis is responsible for all the visuals of the website and marketing materials. He brings the views of the everyday movie audience but still holds an appreciation for the critically acclaimed films. He enjoys all things horror (good or bad) as well as comedy and action flicks. Follow him on Twitter @luisthedesigner