Tommy Wiseau gives himself the freedom to make films on his own terms. We respect the persistence, but The Room shows how little personal commitment can do for unconvincing dialogue and relationships.
Fi1m perspective
In The Room (2003), Tommy Wiseau strains to make Johnny’s feelings clear. Johnny is meant to be an ordinary man, but the visible effort makes even casual conversation difficult to believe. We found that exposed struggle unexpectedly touching, because there is no mistaking how much Wiseau wants the drama to work. It remains poor drama, and repetition wears down the pleasure of the accidental comedy.
Wiseau wrote, directed and produced this debut feature as well as playing its lead, and his overlapping duties make the failures difficult to separate. As a producer, he got a film made in which his own writing and performance set the terms for everyone else. Juliette Danielle’s Lisa and Greg Sestero’s Mark have little chance of finding a convincing rhythm around him. Even their casual exchanges suffer from dialogue that sounds as though it has been written without much attention to how people speak.
After a poor initial reception, The Room acquired a following through midnight screenings. Wiseau’s ability to sustain that interest, including through personal appearances, is a real achievement for a producer. It also needs separating from what the film achieves as a story about romance and trust. The occasional unintended laugh is welcome, but the long stretches of repetition remain a problem, however much company we have.
Beyond that debut, he wrote, directed and produced the documentary Homeless in America (2004), then reunited with Sestero as an actor in Best F(r)iends: Volume 1 (2017). That continued activity deserves acknowledgement, without asking us to revise what fails in the film on which his reputation rests. We would save The Room for an evening when an unusually exposed failure at serious drama is itself of interest.
Biography
Tommy Wiseau is an American actor, director, writer and producer. He is also known as Thomas Pierre Wiseau and Tomasz Wieczorkiewicz. He trained as an actor at the American Conservatory Theater, the Vince Chase Workshop, the Jean Shelton Acting Lab, Laney College and the Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
In 2003 Wiseau wrote, directed, produced and starred as Johnny in the feature film The Room. The film received the Audience Award at the New York International Film Festival. In 2004 he produced the documentary Homeless in America, which received a Social Award at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.
Wiseau has also appeared in Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2007), Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (2015), Cold Moon (2016) and the Best F(r)iends films (2017–2018). He featured in the 2017 film The Disaster Artist.
