“Tell me … since you found the key has your life gotten better or worse?”
The SciFi Channel’s latest miniseries wings its way onto DVD. It is quite compelling television, features a great cast and an intriguing premise.
Detective Joe Miller (Peter Krause) accidentally comes into possession of a mysterious motel room key. When you use it on any door, it opens into a room at the Sunshine Motel in Gallup, New Mexico. The thing is that when you’re in the room you can imagine the place that you’d want to come out at and when you open the door to the motel room you’re opening it onto the place you’ve imagined.
Anna is lost in the motel room
It seems that in 1961 something happened, referred to as the “event,” in this motel room and all of objects in it gained mystical powers. Now Joe is introduced into the world of the “objects.” Some of the powers are astounding, even earth shattering, and others are rather silly. For example, besides the key there’s a comb that can stop time for 5 seconds at a time, a bus ticket that transports those it touches in an isolated area outside of Gallup, New Mexico, and the watch only hard boils eggs and that’s all that it does.
There are also several groups of people who are out to get the objects. The Collectors are a group that was formed quickly after the “event,” they collected most of the more powerful objects and hid them. The Legion is a group whose goal is to find the objects and destroy them to keep them from causing any harm. The Order of the Reunification is a group that feels that the objects belonged to God and if they collect them all that they’ll be able to communicate with God.
The problem arises when Joe’s daughter Anna (Elle Fanning) is in the room without the key, the door shuts, and Anna disappears. One of the members of The Legion named Jennifer (Julianna Margulies) decides to help Joe, against her better judgment. Karl Kreutzfeld (Kevin Pollak) is an ex-Legion member who is out collecting objects for his private collection with unknown reasons for doing so.
The objects have a habit of making people become obsessed with them - as Dr. Ruber (Dennis Christopher) finds out. Now Joe must try and decide who is an enemy and who is a friend as well as finding a way to finding his lost daughter.
The Lost Room was one of the most compelling miniseries that I’ve seen in a long time. At first I thought that the idea of the objects was really rather silly, but darn it I found myself drawn into the show and I was hooked. The show is full of compelling characters and you really feel for Joe Miller as he searches desperately for his daughter and it has do with the solid performance by Peter Krause.
Jennifer and an object, but what does it do?
Not only does Krause hit all the right notes, but his supporting cast does as well. From the zaniness of Wally Jabrowski (Peter Jacobson), the current holder of the bus ticket, and the downright lunacy of Harold Stritzke (Ewen Bremner), the current holder of the comb. The major supporting cast of Kevin Pollak, Julianna Margulies, and Dennis Christopher are also excellent. Everyone has a moment or two to shine.
However, a word or warning since by the end of the program there are some plotlines that are resolved and others that are left hanging. As far as I’m aware there are no plans for another miniseries to resolve them. In some ways it’s a good thing since I’m glad they didn’t feel rushed to come up with some answers since I’m sure that such rushing would probably come up with something that was less than satisfactory.
Since we’re left with more questions than answers it leaves the viewer with a palpable sense of curiosity as to what exactly the room is all about. I want more dammit, but only time will tell if there is more to come or not. I may eat those words one day if the resolution is stupid though.
The Lost Room is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 18 minute “Inside the Lost Room” featurette. It has interviews with creator/co-writer/co-executive producer Christopher Leone, Peter Krause, Peter Jacobson, director (of parts 1 and 3) Craig Baxley, creator/co-writer/co-executive producer Laura Harkcom, Julianna Margulies, Dennis Christopher, Kevin Pollak, producer Paul Kurta, producer designer Keith Neely, senior VFX supervisor Eric Grenaudier, and supervising VFX producer Mark Spatny.
Unfortunately, they don’t answer my big question – will we see more adventures? I do hope so, but then again maybe not since the resolution might not be as exciting as the not knowing. Decisions, decisions.
Joe Miller finds that there are some doors that are best left closed
The Lost Room is a miniseries that I greatly admired, but you should be prepared to still have some questions unanswered by the time that the credits roll. It benefits from compelling characters and excellent performances. Check it out if you want to get hooked.
The Lost Room is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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