Everyone can get a little stir crazy being stuck in the same place after a while; maybe it's stuck behind a desk for more hours than you care to in a pokey office space, or even being stuck at home with family members during a holiday season. Irish director Lenny Abrahamson explores this sensation further, albeit in a far darker light, in this follow up to his quirky Frank from 2014.

Joy (Brie Larson) lives with her five year old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) in one very small room, with only a skylight for natural light. She does so not by choice; for over seven years she's been held captive against her will. Nick (Sean Bridgers) is the only one with the code to the door, and he drops by with groceries now and again, usually in exchange for sex with Joy.

All the crazy kids are dancing on the floor these days, let's try it.

For years Joy has been telling her son a fairytale story of what it's like beyond the door and their four walls. For him, 'room' is all he knows of their existence. Not long after his fifth birthday, Joy not only decides to tell him the truth of life outside, but concocts a plan to get him out for the very first time. But coming to terms with the outside world is harder than they both can imagine.

Despite the title, Room is a film of two halves; the first is a claustrophobic exploration of not only what it's like to live in such a limited space, but with the added pressure of raising a child under such extreme confines. The second half is all about the difficult period of adjusting to life on the outside. Although Joy has been incarcerated for such a long time, she at least remembers her life on the outside. For Jack, it's an altogether more intense experience, as being born in confinement is all that he knew, so everything on the outside of the room can be overwhelming.

Just as the film is physically split into two, so are how the two parts are dealt with. There's something intriguing about the relationship and bond between mother and son inside of the room; it's both intense and claustrophobic, with the audience as well as the two actors, co-existing in the small place, having nowhere else to go.

I don't care if I don't sleep for a week, i'm not taking my eyes off of that bloody spider!

Once the pair are on the outside however, the film loses a lot of its power and intenseness. Abrahamson loosens the grip on the story, and in doing so, its appeal dwindles. Jack's journey into the real world could have been given more impetus, but sadly loses its way.

He gets two great performances from his cast though; young Tremblay deserves all the plaudits showered upon him, but Larson's performance shouldn't be ignored, as she holds the piece together with real aplomb.

With the second half of the film not quite up to the standard of the first, there was definitely room for improvement.