FANTASIA 2020 | “The Oak Room” Weaves An Engrossing Labyrinth of Suspicious Stories
11/12 ForReel Score | 4.5/5 Stars
Goose the truth. It’s a phrase Paul (Peter Outerbridge,The Detectives, Giant Little Ones) uses in The Oak Room to explain how to tell a story; skip the boring parts and embellish the details in the tale to keep it interesting. With multiple stories following multiple storylines, The Oak Room is exceptional at executing the art of storytelling. And I am a sucker for exceptional storytelling.
Paul is a bartender in a small remote Canadian town. It’s late, snowy, and he’s closing the bar when Steve (RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad), a young man who owes him money, stumbles in. While hashing out frustrations over their history of conflicts, they tell each other stories. Characters in those stories also tell stories. And within this web of unfolding narratives, certain truths come to light with dire consequences.
The Oak Room is like Inception for storytelling, expounding on stories within stories while tinkering with timeliness. Steve for instance tells the end of one story, which has a character narrating the beginning of another story, which Steve later revisits to tell the beginning of that story, which has that character telling the end of his story. This story-within-a-story style plays out in many ways throughout The Oak Room, and while the series of anecdotes might seem complex, it all knits together to weave a bigger picture.
Of course, great stories are nothing without great storytellers. Adapted from his stage play, writer Peter Genoway with director Cody Calahan translate this production from the theater stage to the screen with appropriately dramatic flare. And the cast does a phenomenal job wielding the clickbaity lead-ins and enticing narrative details like lures on a fishing line, and we’re the fish being reeled in.
There are times, however, when pushing the primary narrative forward can feel forced. Paul’s repeated swings from hostile aggressor to pleasant company over the course of a story can seem less than natural.
But before I can linger too long on what I don’t like, the next story has begun and my attention is captured once again. Because with storytelling in The Oak Room, the devil is in the details, and piecing those details together is one hell of a time. No truth to goose about that.
Acting and Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 2 | Story and Message - 2 | Entertainment Value - 2 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 1 | Reviewer's Preference - 2 | What does this mean?