There’s something about blizzards and wintry conditions that lend so well to genre film. It’s incredibly isolating, for one, but hazardous, icy weather tends to provide a moody Gothic backdrop to whatever thrills and chills are in store. The Oak Room takes a raging Canadian snowstorm and builds an entire mystery around it, scaling back the bells and whistles in favor of rich storytelling to deliver a compelling little thriller.
Directed by Cody Calahan (Antisocial, Let Her Out), and written by Peter Genoway in an adaptation of his stage play, The Oak Room is a single-set thriller set over one increasingly harrowing night. Amidst a raging snowstorm, drifter Steve (Breaking Bad’s RJ Mitte) wanders into a small-town bar after it’s already closed for the night. After years of being away, he’s there to settle an old debt with the grizzled bartender, Paul (Peter Outerbridge). To Paul’s chagrin, Steve offers payment in the form of a story. What unfolds is a tale of mistaken identities, extreme violence, and double-crosses that threatens to expose long-buried secrets within their town.
The Oak Room works in many ways as a story within a story, though every last detail is relevant to the overall narrative. The antagonistic relationship between Paul and Steve causes the overarching mystery to unfold in piecemeal; Steve is forced to tell his story in bits to a very reluctant and unwilling listener. The darker the story grows, the more Paul is willing to listen, therefore, the faster the answers come. That means the suspense gradually builds until it crescendos into shocking violence and twisted truths. As in, The Oak Room is a definitive slow-burn. That’s not a negative here.
Because this is a single-set, small-scaled thriller with a limited cast, Calahan pares everything down and opts for simplicity. In other words, it’s the story that takes utmost precedence, and it’s handled with precision. It’s rich and dense in dialogue, meaning that it demands your full attention to make the biggest impact. For the men trading banter and stories, a lot is bubbling beneath the surface at all times. Calahan makes subtle use of visual clues and foreshadowing, too, with an emphasis on watches playing a crucial role in the mystery.
Outerbridge and Mitte do the heavy lifting here, creating nuanced characters from a straightforward, simple story, one that hinges on its performers to sell it. Ari Millen (Orphan Black, I’ll Take Your Dead), along with Martin Roach (The Shape of Water) and Nicholas Campbell (Black Mirror, Antiviral), also make great work of their supporting roles.
The Oak Room is a small little thriller that demonstrates the potent power of storytelling. Nestled in an isolating blizzard, Calahan examines how the past can come back to haunt you in a viscerally violent way and how relationships with fathers evolve. That it relies heavily on dialogue to weave this tale means that it’s not as visually exciting. The impact of the payoff owes much to truths revealed rather than an action-based finale, which means that for some, the payoff to this quiet slow-burn may not pack a big enough punch. For those interested in something far more introspective that plays like an unsettling tale told around a campfire, The Oak Room is an engaging narrative exercise.
