Movie Review: The Immaculate Room

credit: The Immaculate Room

It’s interesting to note how much time people really spend with each other in a given day since the general idea that folks can stand each other for more than a few minutes to a few hours at a time is sound enough with some folks but impossible with others. When Mike and Kate agree to spend 50 days in the Immaculate Room for $5 million, they enter thinking that this will be a breeze, there’s nothing to it, and they can coexist in this place without fail as they seek to collect the money. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long to figure out that boredom was bound to set in, the food is actually kind of terrible, and 50 days was going to be a trial that would test them and their relationship in ways that they weren’t ready to think about.  There are a lot of ways a relationship can be tested, but putting people together in a room where they can’t get away from each other is a real test. 

credit: The Immaculate Room

Mike was bound to be the first to crack. 

In a lot of movies, Emile Hirsch has taken on a lot of different roles, but in this one, he takes on the part of a man that comes from a family with money, has elected to focus on his art, is trying to be altruistic, and has issues that he has left unresolved. Mike is the type of guy that follows trends and defies his father to prove a point, but on the inside is weak until he learns how to let go of his issues and accept that life goes on. In short, Mike is someone that might look scruffy and sound like he has some of the greatest ideas in the world, but his ego is fragile, and so is his entire mindset. The fact that he lasts so long in this movie is impressive, but the idea that he’s the first to tap out isn’t tough to reason with at all since once his illusions were shattered it was kind of easy to imagine that he would tap out. 

Kate is stronger, but she still has a threshold she can’t go beyond. 

The fact is revealed that Kate doesn’t come from money and knows that it’s harder to let the promise of money go when it’s been guaranteed at the end of the 50 days. Her mental state isn’t much stronger than Mike’s, but she does appear to have more discipline when it comes to her mental state, at least enough that she can weather the days without needing another type of stimulus, such as the green marker that Mike asks for as one of his ‘treats’ that are part of the contract. The fact that this treat costs $100k definitely bothers Kate since it takes away from the amount they’ll collect at the end of the time period, but since she’s adamant about each of them taking away half of the prize, it would appear that she’s not as bothered by it as she could be. However, the next treat that arrives, the second of Mike’s that is allowed, things take a decidedly awkward turn. 

credit: The Immaculate Room

Simone was a test that had a surprising result. 

When the second treat arrives in the form of a naked woman named Simone, who is a bit more forward than Kate enjoys, the test between Kate and Mike escalates as Mike tries to be friendly but not too friendly with Simone. This still riles up Kate, who feels that Simone is attempting to cause a divide between her and Mike, but when she takes her own treat, which is several tabs of ecstasy, things only get stranger as the days continue to roll by. Once Simone is gone, the understanding is that things might go back to normal. However, that’s not what happens, and as the relationship between Mike and Kate continues to break down, more is revealed about each of them, and they continue to feel the divide growing as Mike is the one to finally say that he’s done, with the relationship and the room. 

In the end, the money became the biggest problem, not the best solution. 

It’s amazing what a promise of money can do to people and how it can tear them apart. By the end of the movie, it’s seen that Mike and Kate might not have known each other as well as they thought and that the promise of money was only a minor fix to whatever relationship issues that were going to crop up at some point. But in the end, it would appear that they’re willing to start over, or at least talk with each other as Kate is leaving a public building, which is revealed to be a soup kitchen that has been given a generous donation from an anonymous donor.