The Disappointments Room -- a review

Kate Beckinsale stars Dana Barrow, an architect who moves to the country with her husband and young son after suffering a grievous tragedy with her infant daughter. They move into a mansion that was formerly owned by a Judge Blacker (Gerald McRaney) back in the olden days. Dana discovers that her new home has a secret room, one where the door is only locked from the outside, making it a prison cell. Consulting with a local historian, Dana discovers that the room is what’s known as a disappointment room.

Back in the olden days, if a child was born with any form of disability that was not deemed to be “suitable” for their wealthy family, they would be hidden from society, locked away in the disappointment room. Dana discovers that Judge Blacker had done this to his young daughter, locking her away in the disappointment room in the upstairs of her new country home. But Judge Blacker’s daughter, along with the good judge himself, are not at rest, for they still wander the halls of the house even after death.

Or do they?

A major problem with The Disappointments Room is how the script keeps undercutting Beckinsale’s character. Just when you’re solidly in her corner, the screenplay (co-written by actor Wentworth Miller, from Prison Break, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow) keeps pulling the rug out from under her in terms of undermining her credibility. Instead of a scary supernatural thriller, we wind up with a lame Lifetime Network movie where we’re left always wondering about the sanity of the main character.

Another problem is that the film feels very choppy, as if a great deal of the scenes have been left on the cutting room floor. Characters abruptly disappear--such as with one having been killed, supposedly by the ghosts, only for his body to disappear later. But if he wasn’t really killed, then where is he? I really like Kate Beckinsale a great deal, and I saw this just because she was in it, but not even her presence could liven up this muddled mess of a film, which is so confused that the real mystery here is what kind of a story the filmmakers were going for in the first place. --SF

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