‘The Immaculate Room’ Review: Kate Bosworth and Emile Hirsch Imprison Themselves in a White Room for $5 Million
20.08.2022 - 22:37
/ variety.com
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticYou could call “The Immaculate Room” the ultimate lockdown movie, or maybe the spa version of “Saw.” It’s a chicly austere and, at stray moments, provocative tabloid thriller in which Kate (Kate Bosworth) and Mikey (Emile Hirsch), as part of a mysterious contest, agree to spend 50 days living in a large bare white room. When they first walk in, they’re greeted by a Siri voice, British and female, who makes ritual pronouncements like “It is evening. Enjoy your stay in the Immaculate Room.” If they make it through all 50 days, they’ll get $5 million in prize money.
(If only one of them makes it, the reward gets reduced to $1 million.) It doesn’t sound all that hard, like two months of voluntary prison time minus the dirt and danger. And that’s the hook: Who wouldn’t do this for $5 million? But the fact that it sounds so do-able means the audience is asking from minute one: What’s the catch? In a funny way, “The Immaculate Room” is a parable of boredom, which makes it a story for our time. Kate and Mikey have a flat white bed to sleep on, but mostly they’ve got white walls and nothing else.
The place looks like an empty art-museum gallery (you can just about see the Gerhard Richter paintings that would be hanging there), or an unfurnished boutique condo designed by Steve Jobs. A small milk container marked FOOD sits in its slot like an Apple product. In the container is a gooey flavorless liquid: sustenance stripped of pleasure.
“Not exactly Shake Shack,” says Mikey after taking a swig. Eating is no fun, but more than that there’s no diversion. In prison you can read a book.
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