Virginia Madsen in (A) Spare Room (2018)

Spare Room, (or “A Spare Room” as it’s listed on the opening card but not anywhere else), is an Independant movie from 2018, and despite it somewhat flying under the radar a little it’s been very much on my “Virginia Madsen films I want to watch” list since i started this whole thing. Not really sure why it’s on my “last of my Virginia Madsen films to watch” list as I bring this whole Filmography to a close, but… It is.

Spare Room is an intimate tale of two people struggling to get by in today’s world. It’s sort of two stories in one.

The first story is one of a mysterious veteran, David (Martin Sensmeier) who is suffering from flashbacks and a fair amount of guilt after his time in Afghanistan. He’s become a loner and a drifter, not really knowing what to do with life after the Iraq war.

The second story is one of Lillian (Skylar Samuels), she’s living in small town America and not having a great time of it all. Both her Mother and Husband have recently passed away and she’s been left to care for her brother, Arrow (Cole Sibus). Her Husband was also in the war but thanks to disobeying an order which ultimately ended his life Lillian is unable to claim any compensation which has left her struggling to pay the bills.

David ends up in Lillian’s town, they briefly meet at the diner she works at. She’s recently advertised her “Spare Room” out for rent, David needs a place to stay and so opportunity has its way and he moves in with her.

The story holds no real surprises, it’s pretty by the book – It seems silly to say “I won’t spoil it” when most of the movie is so predictable, but, I’ll refrain from going into the details all the same.
Virginia Madsen plays Nat (don’t call her Natalie), the owner of a local bar where David gets work shortly after arriving in town. She gives him a job despite not advertising one, him being unshowered and having no place to live.

Because of this it’s obvious she’s got a soft spot for Military Men, but we never get anymore of her back story. From what she says and how she is I half expected some kind of monologue from her about losing her husband in a nonsense war and struggling to get by on her own, one day at a time.

But, that never came. I guess the film isn’t that predictable after all…

She does play a good character though, one that I don’t think I can recall seeing her play before. Nat reminded me of a Top Dog kind of character in a Women’s Prison. Think Orange is The New Black or Wentworth. It’s that kind of no nonsense, hard working weary soul she’s got. In Nat, we see Virginia Madsen bringing her hallmark authenticity to a small town figure, much as she’s done before but with a slightly harder edge. It’s a character that feels lived-in, even if her story isn’t fully explored – You just get to make your own up like I did.
It’s obviously a low budget film, but it’s actually exceptionally well made. There are some beautiful shots in it, but…

Spare Room is another film where Virginia Madsen, and the rest of the cast, shine – But are ultimately let down by the whole. It’s not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it could have been more. I don’t know what stops it being better, maybe it’s the pacing. Maybe it’s the fact we’ve seen this kind of movie before.

I’d say it’s worth a watch, overall – Don’t expect anything special and you’ll be OK – The performances here are spot on. If you enjoy watching talented people doing what they do best then you’ll get that out of it at least.

Also, a weird shout out to the soundtrack as well. It’s really, really good. More than once I loaded up Shazam to find out the name of a song so I could give it a listen later on and perhaps find more from the band, but it couldn’t help me. Which I thought was very odd, but after trawling through the end credits and looking it up on Google it seems as though a lot of it was done for the film.
Billy Bob Thornton’s band, The Boxmasters, contribute to the soundtrack as does Vince Mira (who also plays “Vince the singer”) and also Natasha Bedingfield but if like me you end up wanting to hear more, then you’ll have to go down your own rabbit hole to find it.

It’s a hard film to recommend you go out and find for the story. You’ve seen it before, you’ll see it again. But, if you’re a fan of Virginia Madsen, or just want to show some kind of support to the people that made it, it’s worth tracking it down. It’s only real sin is that it doesn’t offer us anything new.