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Parents' Guide to

The Immaculate Room

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Tense experiment about trapped couple; language, violence.

Movie R 2022 92 minutes
The Immaculate Room Movie: Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In THE IMMACULATE ROOM, Mike (Emile Hirsch) and Kate (Kate Bosworth) have signed up for an experiment. They must spend 50 days in a white room, together, alone, with no contact with the outside world. If they succeed, $5 million is theirs. They're confident it can be done, but soon stress and extreme boredom set in. Mike decides to take a "treat," which takes $100,000 off of their prize. It turns out to be a green crayon, and he decorates the walls. Kate finds a gun. Mike takes another treat. This one costs $250,000, and it turns out to be a naked woman, Simone (Ashley Greene). Kate takes her treat, which turns out to be three hits of Ecstasy. It's not long before jealousy and guilt rear their heads. Will Mike and Kate make it to the end?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

While it doesn't go as far or dig as deep as it might have, this tense drama still has interesting ideas and vivid visual schemes, as well as strong performances. The design for The Immaculate Room is everything you could hope for. The room is vast, with nothing but a bed, a little nook for the doorway, and a separate bathroom (food, or, rather, goopy life-sustaining liquid, is delivered at mealtimes). It's oppressive in its whiteness, and the movie takes on a whole different tone after Mike's beautiful, eerie green artwork adorns the walls. Hirsch and Bosworth provide the movie's beating heart, adding just the right amount of energy to the still surroundings.

You can't help wishing that they had come more mentally prepared for the boredom -- their "this'll be a piece of cake" attitude at the start is laughable. And the twists in the third act feel a little too cursory, a little too easy; the characters become less human and more like pawns of the screenplay. As The Immaculate Room wraps up, it feels like it isn't really about much more than money and how it corrupts. Even so, it generates a certain amount of suspense with its simple question: How long can they last, and, perhaps more importantly, how long would we, the viewers, last? It's an OK effort, but it's a shame that The Immaculate Room had to cut corners.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about The Immaculate Room's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

  • How are sex and nudity portrayed in the movie? What values are imparted?

  • How is drug use portrayed? Is it glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

  • Would you have taken the room challenge? What would you have done the same? Differently?

  • Do you agree with the movie's theme that money corrupts? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

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