Synopsis
During a raging snowstorm, a drifter returns home to the blue-collar bar located in the remote Canadian town where he was born. When he offers to settle an old debt with a grizzled bartender by telling him a story, the night's events quickly spin into a dark tale of mistaken identities, double-crosses and shocking violence.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- RJ MitteSteve
- Peter OuterbridgePaul
- Ari MillenMichael
- Nicholas CampbellGordon
- Martin RoachRichard
- David FerryKenneth
- Amos CrawleyThomas Coward
- Avery EstevesYoung Michael
- Coal CampbellYoung Gordon
- Adam SeyboldYoung Paul
Recommendations
- 83
The Film Stage
The Oak Room is playing games with us as well. - 75
Original-Cin
This story about stories is best absorbed if you’re not in a hurry. The Oak Room is not long (88 minutes), but the words demand attention. - 75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
A lot of things are said; a lot is not. It was a dark and stormy night. An audience walks into a film – and stays for the whole 90 minutes, because it is worth it. - 65
Film Threat
The Oak Room is a movie that purports to be seen as a dark and twisty backwoods noir but takes so much time getting to where it actually wants to go that by the time the story winds itself up, we’ve lost interest. - 60
The Guardian
This sharply crafted piece talks the talk and finally threatens to walk the walk. - 38
Movie Nation
This cut-and-paste cliche collection could have been written by a machine. - 38
RogerEbert.com
Back and forth The Oak Room goes, without ever building the tension it ostensibly seeks. Instead, it meanders from tale to tale, and the writing isn’t sharp or specific enough to sustain this kind of complex framework.
