The Room Upstairs 1987

Leah Lazenby Stockard Channing is a single woman who lives in a house she recently inherited from her parents. To save money and keep up the inheritance, she rents out rooms to a variety of tenants while she sleeps in her parents’ parlour. She works at a school for children who struggle with learning disabilities or even antisocial tendencies, steady in her routine and quietly managing multiple lives under one roof.

Travis Coles [Sam Waterston] arrives to inquire about the upstairs room. He can pay in advance and is promptly accepted, and he swiftly becomes a steady presence in the house.

Travis integrates with the household in small, supportive ways: he flatters Leah while she’s dealing with plumbing, assists the other tenants, photographs Leah and her pupils, chauffeurs her around in his car, and stands guard when she’s attacked by Kevin [Clancy Brown]. Through these gestures, he earns Leah’s trust and a sense of safety she hadn’t felt in a long time.

When a crisis hits, Leah turns to Travis to help take Ellie [Joan Allen] to the hospital after Ellie attempts to end her life following Kevin’s betrayal and departure. Ellie’s fragile state deepens Leah’s sense of responsibility and compassion.

Leah’s head teacher [Linda Hunt] assigns her a challenging new duty: to look after Susan [Renée Estevez], an unruly and illiterate teenage girl who resists schooling. Susan lives with her boyfriend, and Leah makes regular visits to try teaching her to read—often using fashion magazines as a hook. The relationship between Leah and Susan grows tense when Susan lays a cruel trap, provoking a public fight that ends with Leah being accused by Susan of a broken-bottle assault as the police arrive; Leah leaves shaken but undeterred.

Back at home, a tense exchange with Travis over Leah’s anger and her sense of shared hurt gives way to a deeper bond. He explains that she isn’t the only person who has been hurt and encourages her to care for Ellie’s problems as well. This conversation helps Leah open up, and she and Ellie eventually become friends.

Mrs. Sanders [Linda Hunt] keeps Leah grounded, convincing her not to quit teaching and steering her toward a different role within the school. Meanwhile, Mandy [Sarah Jessica Parker], one of Leah’s tenants, gives birth during Travis’s Canada tour, and a joyful celebration fills the house, with Travis managing a brief visit during the break.

Romance blossoms between Travis and Leah as they share confidences and moments of vulnerability. Leah reveals a difficult case—a deafblind child—and, with Travis’s quiet support, she allows herself to rest. In turn, Travis reveals the weight of his own past: a child who died while he was on tour, a tragedy that strained his marriage and left a lasting ache. The next morning, they wake up together, their connection clear and new.

Leah’s brother Frank [James Handy] expresses frustration at the modest profits from the house, even as Leah continues to balance being a tenant’s babysitter for Mandy. Despite his concerns, she remains firm in her decision not to sell.

Travis accompanies Leah to one of his concerts, and upon returning home, she invites him to her room where a meal awaits and they share a warm, mutual attraction that culminates in a kiss, sealing a new chapter in their evolving relationship.