A young woman connects with an elder man in a nursing home following the passing of her grandfather. The man soon tells her his long and complex life story.
Written and directed by Trevor Juenger, this film feels like and really is multiple stories put into one bigger one, something that works story wise here. The multiple stories all come together quite well and create a world of their own within the film, fitting well with the setting of the old man telling his life story. Of course, some of the stories are stronger than they others and some fit in better than the others. That being said, in terms of writing and directing, the film feels cohesive and like it was carefully planned. However, the film is also much too long. While watching it is, it comes off as a film that needs severely trimmed down to keep the story (or stories) moving along faster and to better keep the viewer’s attention. Granted, the film’s original runtime of 3.5 hours, shot from a 286-page script, must have felt much longer. Unfortunately, the current runtime still feels too long, creating pacing issues that could easily be addressed with trims here and there on longer scenes and maybe even the removal of a few sequences completely. As it stands, the film has good ideas, good writing, and good directing generally speaking, but it’s also overindulgent and allows scenes and sequences to run much longer than needed, something that can be a bit of a crime against itself for this film.
The cast here is decent, some of them needed a bit more time with their parts, but overall, most did rather well. Leads Jackie Kelly and Bill Oberst Jr are the strongest here, giving the performances that attract the eye and the attention throughout the film with Bill Oberst Jr being the definite strongest of the bunch. Horror fans will also notice the presence of Debbie Rochon who gives a more than decent performance. In terms of ensemble cast, most of the performances work well, some need a bit more work, and a few feel out of place. However, the acting here is fairly solid from most of the cast.
As for the look of the film, it’s one of those indies where the look is even throughout, something works in its favor and something that may be surprising considering there were 3 cinematographers and 2 editors. This shows a good grasp of what was needed here and what writer-director Juenger had in mind. The special effects are also quite on point when it comes to the practical effects. The old man effect is not an easy one and while it shows the film’s budget, the look of him is quite good.
Overall, The Man in Room 6 is a decent film that suffers from being much too long in its current cut. The writing and directing are decent and the acting is mostly quite good. The practical effects work and the film looks good throughout. There is just something missing or rather something too much in the runtime that make it a bit of a more difficult watch for those who aren’t all about a long drawn-out story.