Fermat's Room

"Fermat's room" ("La habitación de Fermat") is a Spanish thriller, in the spirit of some recent American blockbusters, where maths are supposed to play an important role. But do not expect anything close to "Numbers" in terms of scientific depth. Maths here are only an anecdote.

In fact, this movie is for everyone but mathematicians, who will probably find that the challenges the characters have to face are too trivial and the alleged screw turns of the plot are quite predictable.

The script and the direction are basically OK, but the acting is quite irregular. While Lluís Homar and Santi Millán (especially Santi Millán, who clearly steals the show) are rather convincing and solid, I do not buy Alejo Sauras and Elena Ballesteros as young math geniuses. Maybe it is not all their fault, as their characters are arguably more stereotypical than the other two.

In the end, an entertaining popcorn movie for a rainy fall evening... as long as you do not know enough maths.

Neighter the story deepens as expected; thus the mysteries of the movie fails to raise tension, nor the narration presents a satisfying visual attraction. Good idea, sufficient prologue and unsatisfactory final.

Unfortunately Fermat's Room adds nothing new to the idea of trapping a group of people in a single room and having them slowly piece together how they know one another. The general premise of course sounds interesting (at least to me) a shrinking room and four mathematicians must solve their way out. But the problem begins right there, they are only given one minute per question, which makes it damn near impossible for the audience to keep up. Not to mention when they begin to work out the problems on the chalkboard, the camera hardly ever puts it in frame, which would have been great for the audience to kind of sole the problem along with the characters.

But instead the movie shifts focus away from the riddles/enigmas and focuses on them trying to figure out who has put them there and why. This is where Fermat's Room becomes derivative and generic, this is very familiar territory for this type of movie and it is spun in an unengaging way. I personally would have enjoyed focuses more on the enigmas and trying to include the audience more (possibly by giving the characters more time to solve them).

And the unfortunate aspect of the movie is the Spanish subtitles, they were very fast moving which didn't help things (Just something that was unavoidable sadly). Like when the characters are dissecting the enigmas, the lines of dialogue moved too quickly to follow along with how they were solving the problem.

But when all is said and done, Fermat's Room is an interesting, little thriller that has just enough distinction from other films in the genre to make it worth mentioning.

Four mathematician's are invited to a home, to discuss ideas. Once there they soon discover that it's a trap, where they have to solve problems, while the walls slowly close in on them...

On paper, this film sounds like an intelligent version of Saw. And there are slight similarities, but it's a much cleverer film. The plot is well thought out, as it keeps you guessing on who is behind it all. The film is very well acted by the cast, and the writers and directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Soperia keep the tension through out. The set design of the single room is impressive as the clever use of camera angles to add to the building tension as the room gets smaller.

Despite being a film where they use a lot of problems so it relies on the brain more than brawn, the problems themselves aren't overly complicated, and are easy to understand.

If there is a slight let-down, I thought the ending isn't as clever as the rest of the film, but despite this I really enjoyed the film and would recommend it.

Fermat's Room is a welcome Spanish thriller that takes the tried and true Saw/Cube formula and adds some actual intrigue and a little bit of wit to the proceedings. With a slow and steady build to an ending that ties everything up in a rather satisfying way, you'll be asking yourself "why can't most thrillers make this much sense?" Fermat's Room is not original but it puts an interesting and well-written spin on tired plot points and movie gimmicks. Directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena have a good sense of space and depth when it comes to shooting in the room itself and the tension and pacing will have you staring at the screen with anticipation. Do yourself a favor and check out Fermat's Room; it just might cleanse your palette of all the junk films floating out there lately.