Lisa Was Justified (The Room)

April Fool's day was not to long ago and for those in the know that meant marathon showings of the infamous film, "The Room" from Tommy Wiseau on Adult Swim.

For those of you who don't know: "The Room" is an independent movie that was first released as a drama in 2003. After being critically panned and also reviled (or more often than not, loved for it's terribleness) by audiences director/producer/star/executive producer/writer (as listed in the opening credits) Tommy Wiseau attempted to rebrand this terrible movie as a "Black Comedy" and fooled no one but maybe himself. I say maybe because he still reacts poorly when anyone is making fun of the film without 'permission' despite reviews and parodies being covered under Fair Use Laws. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I get some take down notice or request for writing this analysis.

For an excellent review of this film I suggest the Nostalgia Critic's as he nails several of the key points of fail and provides a better summary of the film.

Here's a synopsis for those who haven't seen "The Room": Johnny (who is totally not Tommy's Mary Sue) is a 'sucessful' 'banker' who is engaged to Lisa who's 'computer job' cannot support her on her own. Johnny is also helping their neighbor Denny pay for school because his parents are MIA (we assume because NOTHING is said about them). Lisa gets bored in her relationship and has sex (repeatedly) with Johnny's best friend Mark. Eventually, after about a million and a half pointless scences and random subplots that go no where, at Johnny's surprise birthday party Johnny figures out Lisa is sleeping with Mark. Johnny goes nuts and destroys his apartment before turning a gun on himself. The next day Mark, Lisa and Denny find his body and scream at eachother while deciding what the fuck  they'll do now because they have nothing. Fade to black as police sirens wail.

However instead of rehashing some of the same parts every other review has done ("You're Tearing Me APART, LISA" or "I did not hit her, I did not. Oh Hi Mark!"), in my brief viewing of a few scenes of "The Room" on Cartoon Network I noticed something different than all that. This was about the character Lisa (Johnny's fiance).

The main thing I noticed is (as you've probably guessed by the title) is that Lisa's affair is almost completely justified, albeit in an accidental sort of way. You can tell from the dialogue that Lisa is supposed to be the supreme evil being in this film, barely passing for human. Her stated justifications for her affair are that she's bored and she doesn't love Johnny anymore. In movie and TV land, these are generally unacceptable reasons for divorce, much less cheating therefore, for this movie, she is evil. She states she's unhappy in this relationship and wants out of it and is willing to manipulate Johnny and Mark as well as a few of her other friends to get what she wants, even if it's just this vague idea of 'interesting' she keeps going on about.

However, the clumsy writing of the script actually gives Lisa far more justification that Wiseau ever intended. Oh Literary Criticism, I love how at times you can just throw out authorial intent. Almost every character who talks to Lisa about the affair talks about Johnny and his feelings. The secondary and minor characters thoughts are all variations of, "You can't do this Lisa, you'll hurt Johnny's feelings." This applies to Mark and Claudette (Lisa's mother) as well. Mark has to constantly remind Lisa that he is Johnny's best friend, even after their first time together and then he's still blase toward her feelings and enjoys screwing with Johnny more than loving Lisa. Claudette is the only person to remotely consider Lisa's feelings and her thoughts are, "Love doesn't matter, money does. You just have to put up with it" and then she too joins in defending Johnny and his feelings.

Lisa is trapped in an unfair relationship. Everyone loves Johnny and will do anything to make him happy, even if it includes trapping her where she doesn't want to be. The universe's fixation on Johnny leaves Lisa completely sidelined. Most real world relationship advice boils down to, "do what's best for yourself" and no one ever tells Lisa this beyond 'get his money first.'  Every one focuses on Johnny and how he feels (or would feel) about the situation. No one is looking out for Lisa but herself. This is what drives her to do some of her more questionable acts (Making out with Mark at the party, slow dancing with him, saying she's pregnant when she's not) she's calling out for attention to herself and not Johnny for once since they started this relationship. Hell, I bet that if we would've seen much more of this some characters would say things like, "This pregnancy is going to be great for Johnny! He'll be such a good father." and other such bullshit.

Other evidence for the "crying out for attention' theory can be found when Lisa (falsely) accuses Johnny of hitting her after getting drunk. Claudette's first instinct is to immediately state, "Johnny doesn't drink." This shows Lisa her mother is more interested in Johnny's well-being than her own daughter's. I mean really, her daughter may be in danger from physical harm and her first reaction is that her fiance is uncapable of doing such things. If Lisa inherited her mother's drama queen tendencies it explains things, but still you take violent threats seriously. This is is even more troublesome when later in the film he pushes her down into a chair during an argument.

Hell, the entire cast takes Denny's encounter with a drug dealer more seriously than her own personal struggles, even her own mother. She has to repeat her her problems with their relationship over and over to try and get through to people, but it's to no avail. The lie about the pregnancy was infact the final straw for Lisa. It was probably her final experiment before going public with her affair in the way she did. It was proof to her that she wasn't nearly as important as Johnny in the relationship and therefore needed out in anyway possible. Cue self-destruction at the party by jumping all over Mark and then after the party calling him while Johnny can here.

Whether her intention or not, Johnny's suicide gives her that independence she wanted, however she then clings straight to Mark because she still honestly can't take care of herself (or believes that because of the reinforcement of identity issues).

Now, I'm not advocating infidelity. Lisa went about things poorly and really hurt people with her actions (including causing Johnny's death). I do think she should leave Johnny if she's obviously that miserable which I believe she is. Her life was not her own and she took ownership of it. It's like Tommy Wiseau accidentaly wrote a horrible update of Madame Bovary.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?