The Room

The Room
Directed by	Tommy Wiseau
Produced by	Tommy Wiseau
Starring	Tommy Wiseau Juliette Danielle Greg Sestero Philip Haldiman Carolyn Minnott Robyn Paris
Cinematography	Todd Barron
Edited by	Eric Chase
Music by	Mladen Milicevic
Distributed by	Wiseau-Films
Release dates	27 June 2003 (LA) 19 February 2005
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language
Budget	$6,000,000

The Room is a 2003 independent film written and directed by its star, Tommy Wiseau, who is also credited on screen as both the movie's producer and executive producer. The principal cast includes Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman, Carolyn Minnott, and Robyn Paris. The Room tells the melodramatic story of a love triangle between a man, his future wife, and his best friend.

Without any studio support, Wiseau pissed on everyone and spent over $6 million on production and marketing for the film. Wiseau promotes the film as a black comedy and insists that its humor is actually intentional, although cast members have publicly disputed these claims and many audience members generally view the film as a poorly-made drama.

The Room has been cited by some critics as one of the worst films ever made, and has been called "the Citizen Kane of bad movies." After a brief run in Los Angeles, the film went on to develop a cult following in the city, and continues to have midnight screenings around America.

Plot

The Room is the story of a love triangle between a kind-hearted man named Johnny (Wiseau), his fiancée Lisa (Danielle), and his best friend Mark (Sestero).

At the beginning of the film, Lisa has become dissatisfied with Johnny, confiding to her best friend Michelle (Paris) and her mother Claudette (Minnott) that she finds him boring. Lisa seduces Mark, and they begin an affair that continues throughout the film, even as Mark more than once tries to break it off.

Lisa stays with Johnny because he is a successful banker who has promised to buy her a house. As the wedding date approaches and Johnny’s clout at his bank slips, Lisa gets closer to leaving Johnny for Mark.

The film has several subplots involving secondary characters. A neighboring college student named Denny (Haldiman) — whom Johnny supports and loves like a son — has a mysterious run-in with a drug dealer and struggles with his attraction to Lisa; Claudette, Lisa's mother, deals with real estate problems, failed relationships, and breast cancer (although she nonchalantly announces she has this condition near the beginning of the film, it's never mentioned again); Michelle’s boyfriend Mike (Mike Holmes) is shamed by Lisa and Claudette walking in on him with Michelle in Johnny and Lisa’s living room.

When Lisa throws Johnny a surprise birthday party, she flaunts her affair in front of Johnny, and Johnny and Mark get into not one but two altercations. Johnny has also attached a tape recorder to the telephone, recording an intimate call between his fiancée and Mark. Claiming that he doesn’t have a friend in the world, Johnny locks himself in his bathroom until everyone has left. When he comes out, he destroys his apartment, finds the handgun he took from Denny's drug dealer Chris-R, and commits suicide with a gunshot to the head.

Lisa and Mark discover Johnny’s corpse soon afterwards, and Denny is not far behind. Mark blames Johnny's death on Lisa. Denny blames Johnny’s death on Lisa and Mark, urging them to leave him alone with the corpse, but as the film closes, Lisa and Mark remain with Denny as police sirens grow louder.

Plot holes

While the film is rife with continuity errors and several other minor cinematic drawbacks, there are several plots, subplots and character details whose inconsistencies have troubled and frequently amused audiences. These include:

Claudette's breast cancer Mentioned early on in the film, it quickly becomes a non-issue, with treatment taking second place to her real estate woes and Lisa's relationship.

Is Denny mentally challenged? Though he is apparently in college, it is never quite clear if Denny is a fully functioning adult, mainly due to his ignorance of social norms. In addition, he jumps into the bed with Johnny and Lisa at the beginning of the movie, prompting Johnny to kick him out by saying, "Two is great, but three's a crowd." Another possible explanation is that Denny may have a pervasive developmental disorder of some sort - most likely a PDD-NOS or Asperger's Syndrome. That could explain why Denny can attend college and buy drugs, but why he can't handle most social situations in the movie. Either way, this isn't brought up during the movie itself.

Footage used twice When Johnny and Lisa have sex in their bedroom on two occasions, the same footage is used in both scenes. The second sex scene is simply cut shorter.

"The candles, the music..." As Lisa first attempts to seduce Mark, the latter protests, saying "I don't get it. The candles? The music? The sexy dress?" Neither candles nor music appear anywhere in the scene.

Did Johnny hit Lisa? It remains unclear whether Johnny hit Lisa (or when). Either way, it is also unclear how he came to learn that she was spreading this information, fact or fiction, since before Johnny's complaint Lisa is only shown telling her mother. Also, no bruising nor any other sort of injury on Lisa's body can be seen throughout the remainder of the film, that is, after Lisa makes the accusation.

Denny's drug problem Details are never given about what drugs he uses, if any, nor are any details provided regarding his drug-related debt.

The recorded phone call Early on in the film a suspicious Johnny hooks up what looks like a cassette player c. 1985 to the downstairs telephone. Several days later he retrieves a regular cassette tape, only to have had it record the very last phone call between Lisa and Mark (though, when played back, the cassette tape is not actually moving while the sound plays). Wiseau explained in an interview with LaIst: "You can buy a recorder that records 24/7, and the tape can rewind by itself." Evidently it was recording and re-recording over itself and Johnny has excellent timing.

The exact date of the wedding Throughout the film it is 'a month away.' Of course, due to Johnny's suicide, it never takes place. An early scene with the male characters in tuxedos seems to imply a pre-wedding fitting, though this is never explicitly stated. A line by Denny states that they are going to look good for the photos, however wedding photos are usually taken the day of the wedding.

Was Lisa pregnant? At one point during his birthday party Johnny announces "We 'specting!" Lisa claims, when asked by Michelle during the party, that she lied to him just to keep things "interesting." Yet, later in the film Lisa and Mark discuss whether the baby is his or Johnny's. The pregnancy is not mentioned before this point or afterward.

The meaning of the title It is unclear whether the film's title is in reference to a specific place (most probably the living room, where the majority of the film takes place) or is instead a metaphor for Johnny's mental state or reminiscent of the expression 'No man is an island.' The film's poster, a close-up of Wiseau/Johnny, suggests the latter. In the bonus features interview, Wiseau explains the title refers to "a special place, a private place, a place where you can be safe. It's not a room, it's the room."

Johnny drinks a second time? Johnny claims that he doesn't drink alcohol early on in the film shortly before Lisa convinces him to get drunk (ostensibly to make him black out so she can convince Johnny, as well as others, that he struck her while under the influence). Later, at the birthday party, Johnny is handed a glass of champagne (after "Happy Birthday" is sung), which he sips from.

Inconsistency. When Lisa and her friend were talking about her relationship between her and Mark the wine glass she sets down is magically placed back in her hand, and when Lisa and Johnny make love the first time her hair goes from being undone to done to undone again, confusing audiences. In another scene, Mark starts picking his nose, yet in a close-up shot he is leaning forwards out of his seat. Another inconsistency arises when the drug dealer is aprehended. Johnny, Mark, Lisa, and Claudette all appear on the roof with no clear motive, especially since Claudette states earlier that she is going home.

Undeveloped Character Steven, the man who catches Lisa and Mark cheating at Johnny's party, appears 76 minutes into "The Room," yet acts as if he has a large role in the movie. His relationship to any character in the movie is never clarified and his name is never even given during the movie. According to an interview with Greg Ellery, he was introduced as a replacement to the Peter character, since Kyle Vogt quit. In Wiseau's words: "Peter left. Now you are like Peter, but you are Steven."

Chris-R's fate Johnny and Mark forcibly subdue the menacing drug dealer and take him downstairs never to be seen again. Denny says that Chris is going to prison, but if Johnny and Mark really called the cops, the police would have taken Chris' gun with them. However at the end of the film, Johnny finds the gun sitting in an open box in his bedroom. Therefore Chris was never arrested, but never came back to get Denny's money either. Given the film's poor production, however, it is possible that the gun in the box was intended to be a different weapon, but the same prop was used in both scenes.

How Long Have Johnny and Lisa Been Together? Early in the film, Lisa claims that she and Johnny have been together for five years. By the end of the movie (which cannot have lasted longer than a month, as the wedding never came), Johnny starts yelling about how they've been together for seven years. The other characters in the film accept the conflicting statements without comment.

Characters

Johnny (Tommy Wiseau). Film critic Clark Collis writes that Tommy Wiseau, who "plays the cuckolded Johnny," "gives a performance that's both heartfelt and berserk" and compares his howling of the line "You are tearing me apart, Lisa!" with James Dean's similar line in Rebel Without A Cause and Marlon Brando's "Stella!" in A Streetcar Named Desire. Johnny apparently works at a bank and makes his bosses "bundles" by getting clients, but he feels as if he's being used. He was supposed to get a promotion but then didn't. He has several quirks, including unprompted laughter, non sequiturs and leaning back with his hands behind his head. His strong accent is never explained or mentioned, and it is clear that most if not all of Wiseau's lines have been dubbed over in post-production.

Lisa (Juliette Danielle) is Johnny's future wife, with the date of the wedding set for "a month" from practically any scene in the film. Little is known about her except that she works in the "computer business" and hasn't been getting many calls due to its competitiveness. She spends much of the film seducing neighbor Mark and fighting with her visiting mother. She claims not to love Johnny anymore, but oscillates between insulting him behind his back and listing his many, many accomplishments and positive traits. She also tells her mother that Johnny hit her (which he vehemently denies, though it is not clear how he's caught wind of her accusation). While this could very well be a lie, he later pushes her down onto the couch several times. It is implied that Lisa is turning into her mother, a manipulative woman who only looks out for herself. It is rumored that the repetition of a single sex scene was caused by Danielle's refusal to "be near a naked Tommy Wiseau ever again".

Mark (Greg Sestero) is Johnny's best friend, as is explicitly stated over a dozen times. The two enjoy jogging and playing sports together. Mark is confused by Lisa's come-ons at first, then angry, then sad, then hungry. He is especially torn up over damaging his friendship with Johnny. About midway through the film he appears in a tuxedo, as do Johnny and several others for an possible fitting, having shaved his beard. Model-turned-actor Sestero went on to work with Wiseau as a producer and interviewer for the documentary Homeless in America.

Denny (Philip Haldiman) is an orphan who lives in the building. Apparently Johnny moved him in once he turned 18 and pays for his rent while he goes to school. There is some debate over whether or not the character is supposed to have a developmental disability. He tends to come by uninvited and, early on, flings himself onto the bed between Johnny and Lisa as they have a pillow fight. Denny expresses his romantic feelings for Lisa to her, though after a short talk with Johnny these feelings are pushed aside and an unseen character named Elizabeth (coincidentally, the long form of "Lisa") is mentioned as a new love interest. Denny is seldom without his football, and is always eager for a game of close-quarters catch with the older male characters. During a passionate scene near the end of the movie, he mistakenly calls Johnny by his actual name, Tommy.

Claudette (Carolyn Minnott) is Lisa's mother. She is a cold, manipulative woman with a string of ex-husbands. Concerned about finances for both herself and her daughter, she encourages Lisa to stay with Johnny and marry him even if she no longer loves him. Claudette cannot conceive of her daughter making it on her own without some financial support from a man. Also, Claudette has breast cancer, apparently having received some test results shortly before visiting her daughter. She does not seem overly concerned, and is assured by her daughter that "they're curing people every day".

Michelle (Robyn Paris) is Lisa's friend and confidant about the affair with Mark. She disapproves, but points out that she and Lisa have very different points of view. Apparently, many of the other characters are "too much" for her.

Mike (Mike Holmes) is Michelle's boyfriend. He and Michelle enter Johnny and Lisa's apartment at one point to engage in some kinky sex involving a box of chocolates, since according to him, "Chocolate is a symbol of love." They are caught by Lisa and her mother. After fleeing the scene, Mike returns to get a book and is handed his boxers by a bemused Claudette and Lisa. Shortly after, Mike recounts this entire scene to Johnny in a kind of detailed verbal flashback. Mark, for unknown reasons, physically assaults Mike after Mike references "me underwears" (presumably speaking of his boxers again).

Chris-R (Dan Janjigian), a brooding drug dealer who carries a handgun with him.

Peter (Kyle Vogt) is Johnny's friend and a psychologist. He dispenses love advice upon Johnny's request, but is then accused by him of "playing psychologist". He is pushed towards the edge of the roof by an angry Mark after calling him out on sleeping with Lisa, whom he calls "a sociopath" who only loves herself. He disappears shortly after falling in an alley while playing football. According to the online confessions of a member of The Room's Art Department, later scenes that were filmed early in production with another actor (Greg Ellery) portraying Peter were simply purged of the character and given the name "Steven".[1]

Steven (Greg Ellery) is presumably a friend of Johnny and Lisa's as he attends Johnny's surprise birthday party. Despite making his first appearance near the end of the film at the party, he interacts with the other characters as if he's been involved in the story throughout the movie. He discovers Mark and Lisa making out on the couch and confronts Lisa about it, along with Michelle. He is afraid her actions will damage the delicate bond of their circle of friends. He compares the secret he's keeping to "sitting on an atom bomb that's going to explode."

Flower Shop Keeper - A florist who conducts business on a first-name basis with Johnny. She notes that Johnny is her favorite customer and is accompanied by a pug, whom Johnny greets.

Red-Headed Party Guest is a character who appears only at Johnny's surprise party and speaks a single line, noting the attractiveness of Lisa.

Cast

Greg Ellery has claimed that Juliette Danielle, the actress who portrayed Lisa, was 18 years old and just "off the bus from Texas" when shooting began; Ellery also claims that on the first day of shooting, "the cast watched in horror" as Wiseau jumped on Danielle and immediately began filming their "love scene". Wiseau has claimed that Danielle was originally one of three or four understudies for the Lisa character, and was selected after the original actress left the production.

When asked about Philip Haldiman's portrayal of Denny, Wiseau said that he felt the actor had "brought a lot of stuff" to the character, and noted that Denny is "really retarded a little bit."

Kyle Vogt, who played Peter, quit the film halfway through the shoot. His lines in the last half of the film were given to Greg Ellery, whose character is never introduced, explained, or addressed by name. Ellery's character is listed in the credits as "Steven".

Production

The Room began as a play and a novel by Tommy Wiseau, which he wanted to turn into a film. After failing to get his idea within the Hollywood system, he wrote the script himself and spent five years developing and fundraising the project independently until he could shoot it himself. Wiseau told Entertainment Weekly that he raised some of his funds by importing leather jackets from Korea. He eventually amassed $6 million, all of which was spent on production and marketing.

According to Greg Ellery, the actor who portrayed Steven in The Room, Wiseau came to the Birns and Sawyer film lot, rented a studio, and bought a "complete Beginning Director package," which included the purchase of both a brand new film camera and a $30,000 digital camera intended for shooting the "making of." Wiseau, confused about the differences between 35 mm film and high-definition video, decided to shoot the entire film in both formats with two cameras side-by-side on the same mount. This experiment allowed Wiseau to compare the formats on a large scale, and he plans to use the information that he gathered for a DVD documentary and a book.

Principal photography lasted eight months. It was mainly shot in Los Angeles, but some second-unit shooting was done in San Francisco where the film is set. The film employed over 400 people, and Wiseau is credited as an actor (in the leading role of Johnny), an executive producer, the writer, the producer, and the director. Wiseau had a number of problems with his behind-the-camera team, and replaced the entire crew two times.

The original script was actually much longer than the shooting script and contained numerous wordy monologues and more irrelevant information. The script was heavily edited on set by the script supervisor and the actors. One anonymous cast member said that the script contained "stuff that was just unsayable. I know it's hard to imagine there was stuff that was worse. But there was."

Settings

The settings of The Room are important to the film. Most of the action takes place in Johnny and Lisa’s living room – a constructed set, which is notable for its red walls, columns in the corners, framed photos of spoons, a television behind a sofa, a sandpainting, and a spiral staircase that leads up to the bedroom. Characters come and go as they please – even when Johnny and Lisa are not home – often staying for such a short period of time that they don’t bother to close the door.

The roof of Johnny and Lisa’s apartment building is also a common meeting place for the characters, because Mark and Denny live in the same building. The rooftop scenes were shot in front of a green screen in Los Angeles, and the 360-degree cityscape of San Francisco was digitally composited beyond the ledges of the rooftop set.

Johnny and Lisa's bedroom is also featured prominently, with two extended sex scenes within the movie's first act (one between Johnny and Lisa, one between Lisa and Mark). It consists mainly of a four poster bed and billowy white netting, suggestive of a mid-1990s music video (as is the accompanying music).

Other locations include the outdoor patio (though there is some confusion over whether it extends from the apartment's front door), a local flower shop where Johnny regularly goes to buy roses for Lisa (as is indicated by the shopkeeper), a local ice cream shop, and a small brick alley of some sort where the male characters play a very tight game of catch.

Some second-unit shooting was done in San Francisco. Much of this footage is used as transitions and cutaways, showing Johnny wandering around the city or entering his home. The cable cars, Golden Gate Park, the Roman rotunda of the Palace of Fine Arts, and the same townhouses shown in the opening credits of the sitcom Full House are prominently featured in many shots throughout the film. Most notable of the San Francisco vistas are several very long panning shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.

In addition to the landmarks, San Francisco’s society does not go unacknowledged in The Room. In one scene, Johnny, Mark, and their friend Peter discuss participating in the annual Bay To Breakers footrace. In another scene Mark recalls an unfortunate (yet apparently hilarious) story of a girl being beaten and ending up in a hospital on Guerrero Street; however, in reality, there is no hospital on Guerrero Street in San Francisco.

Release and DVD release

In June 2003, The Room debuted with a two-week run at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theater on Sunset Boulevard as well as Laemmle's Fallbrook 7 Theater in Los Angeles. Wiseau’s production company Wiseau-Films has been responsible for distributing and marketing The Room, which until early 2009, had given the film little theatrical exposure outside of Los Angeles. A billboard for The Room was a fixture on Highland Avenue in Los Angeles from the time it first opened to when it was taken down in the fall of 2008. It is partially visible in episode 323 of The Hills, in an establishing shot of LA.

Originally, the film's marketing materials included phrases like "A film with the passion of Tennessee Williams..." though the playwright's name is repeatedly misspelled as "Tennesee." As it gained notoriety as a laughably bad film, the line "Experience this quirky new black comedy, it's a riot!" was added.

The Room has also screened in New York City, Miami, Greensboro, North Carolina, Oakland, Las Vegas and Chicago. It won the Audience Award at the 2004 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

In December 2005, The Room was released for purchase on DVD. It is available for rental only at select video rental shops via direct distribution from Wiseau Films. Wiseau has stated that another edition of the DVD will be released at some point, and will include a number of deleted scenes, including when Chris-R is taken to the police station. He also hopes to release a Blue Ray version at some point.

The Room received its television debut on Adult Swim at 12:00 a.m. ET on April 1, 2009, serving as the network's annual April Fools Day joke.

Critical reception and cult following

Leading up to the release of The Room, Wiseau began a promotional blitz in print and television, comparing The Room to works by Tennessee Williams. He also offered a free CD of the soundtrack to ticket-buyers. The Room premiered at a Laemmle Theatre in Los Angeles on June 27, 2003, where Wiseau had rented limos and red carpet for the occasion. According to cast members, people in the theater began laughing at the film within the first ten minutes, and by the end, some of the crowd were "rolling around" and "crying with laughter". The film made less than $2,000 during its initial theatrical run.

Variety, one of the few publications to print a review of The Room during its original release, reported it was "a self-distributed directorial debut so hopelessly amateurish that auds reportedly walked out during its two-week run in July 2003".

After the film's initial run, Wiseau claims to have received "almost one hundred e-mails" thanking him for creating the film. The praise encouraged him to continue showing the film once a month at the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theater in Hollywood. Over time, the movie has built up a cult following. Fans interact with the film in a similar fashion to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Audience members dress up as their favorite characters, throw plastic spoons at the movie screen (a reference to unexplained framed photos of cutlery often seen in the background), toss footballs to each other from short distances, and yell insulting comments and criticisms about the quality of the film. Since its release, the film has screened in London, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta, Portland, Austin, Omaha, Little Rock and a number of other cities. The film has a number of fans in the entertainment industry, including Paul Rudd, David Wain, David Cross, Jonah Hill, Kristen Bell, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Frank Black.

Wiseau attends many of the midnight screenings, selling t-shirts, DVDs, and film soundtracks to fans. Before the film begins, he engages the audience with a Q&A session. During the film, he encourages audience participation during screenings, and he claims that he does not get upset about the comments that audience members make. In a bizarrely overdubbed interview on the DVD for The Room, Wiseau said, “I’m happy, because I prepared all this stuff, and I wanted people to have a good time [...] When you see The Room, you can yell, you can scream, you can express yourself — that’s the idea." On the March 21, 2009 edition of Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, Wiseau maintained that The Room was intended as a comedy with various meanings and symbolism.

Wiseau's recent claims that the film was intended to be a black comedy have been debated by those involved with the film. One anonymous cast member told Entertainment Weekly: "He is a nice guy. But he is full of shit. He was trying to put together a drama. It was basically his stage to show off his acting ability."

In pop culture

Wiseau made an appearance on Adult Swim's sketch comedy show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! in the episode "Tommy", on March 8, 2009. Scenes from The Room were shown in the episode. Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, the titular duo, regularly attend screenings of The Room.

The Room was aired in its entirety on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block as its annual April Fool's Day joke on April 1, 2009 at midnight, followed by the "Tommy" episode of Awesome Show; other programming ran as scheduled. As usual for its April Fools Joke, Adult Swim gave TV Guide the wrong information. Adult Swim rated The Room TV-14-DLSV, and scenes not appropriate for basic cable were edited out or partially or entirely covered with black boxes. At random times, the phrase "Do not duplicate this copyrighted material" appeared at the bottom of the screen, and the bumps, which appear before and after the commercial breaks, either advertised the R-rated DVD or asked "What are you fools watching?" The day following the broadcast, the movie placed as high as #28 on the Amazon.com DVD best-seller list, as well as moving to #1 among independent films on the site.

Though not mentioned by name, The Room was referenced on the television show Veronica Mars in the episode "Un-American Graffiti." While walking the hall and tossing a football back and forth, Piz describes the film to Wallace, "It's like the new Rocky Horror. Now at one point, people throw plastic spoons at the screen...you have to check it out. It'll...it'll change your life." Additionally, on the January 30, 2009 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell (appearing to promote the film Fanboys) mentioned The Room at length and its cult following; host Jimmy Kimmel even held up a DVD copy of The Room during the conversation.

On June 18, 2009, a RiffTrax for The Room was released, featuring commentary by Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy, of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame.

External links

• Official Site
• The Room at IMDb
• Shooting Locations Map
• Mahalo Daily interview with Tommy Wiseau
• Variety
• Entertainment Weekly article 'The Crazy Cult of The Room'