As Hawkes boils at the brim, never toppling over, his commitment to Martin and his emotional detachment from a life he no longer knows is one of the actor's strongest performances ever. John Hawkes showcases a calm and poised performance that's darkly reminiscent of his turn as Patrick in Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011). As it begins with wit, humor, and real life teenage situations, the film makes an abrupt shift into heavy material that will make you cringe.
As the parents continue to ignore their children while self-absorbed in their own marital and painful woes, you're constantly challenged with the question, who do you care for, the kids, the adults, or neither? In a narrative structure that at times is reminiscent of The Neverending Story (1984), sometimes there's too much moral and metaphorical presentations to keep you engaged during its 82 minute runtime. While the sequences of events are not the most believable or even the most logical, Dyer's screenplay does its best to construct a family that is often times recognizable. If there's a film that can teach you about psyche of survival and the ability to grow up when your adolescent mind tells you otherwise, Dyer's film is a prime example. Starring Academy Award Nominee John Hawkes, Molly Parker, and Olivia Harris, the story takes place in the attic where the four children of Martin (Hawkes) and Donna Cantwell (Parker) tell fantastical tales while their parents fall deeper in a drunken state downstairs with friends Clark and Nadia.
Naturally compared to Ang Lee's harrowing film The Ice Storm (1997), director Julie Dyer teamed up with sister and writer Gretchen Dyer attempt to bring an honest and emotional take on 1970's suburbia in the morose and grim, The Playroom.
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