Dir. Alex de la Iglesia (oh sure, his name means 'Alex from the church!')
Cast: Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Julie Cox, Leonor Watling...
I'm not one to shy away from a film by an unknown director. I am not one to bring preconceptions to a film when I watch it (with the exception of anything involving Keanu Reeves or Andie MacDowell - sorry). This film seemed fairly intruiging to me. Is it possible to raise the profile of mathematical studies by getting the legendary John Hurt and Frodo Baggins himself on board? I like a good murder mystery and Oxford is a beatiful location. Like I said, I was quite interested.
It is hard to say what let me down, really. This film just did not deliver. Well, Oxford was beautiful, at least. I found the plot was too loaded, too heavy. The dialogue was predictable - I even quoted several lines before they were said. Wood brought his wide-eyed boyish quality to the character of Martin, a young mathmatician studying for a year at Oxford. However, this was not enough to carry him through the sketchy script, and his flaws certainly did not make him any more likeable. I think that is what was wrong. I could not empathise with any character in the film. Frankly, they were all utterly bonkers. Hurt put in a good performance but even he sounded ridiculous delivering some of his lines. Neither of the leading female roles made me jump for joy and note down their names for future releases.
The basic idea is that Martin (Wood) is an american student who believes in the power and structure of the secret structure of numbers to give us absolute truth. Lost already? Seldom (Hurt) is a slightly creepy and very grumpy professor and maths genius who denies Martin's claims. But when they both appear at the scene of a mutual friend's murder, where a peculiar mathematical symbol has been left, their brains start ticking. So the story traipses through a chain of murders and symbols, predictions, arguments, threatning conversations and one rather uncomfortable love scene. The film comes to a close in a way which is both a twist and the only completely logical ending. Nothing to write home about.
My rating: ** 2/5 stars
Recommendation: If you like maths you might like this. Or you might not. Or maybe if you have a brain that thinks, you might like it. Or not. If you are impatient, have something else to do or don't enjoy getting confused and then angry with yourself that you were confused by something so obvious, don't watch it. Ok?
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