Overview
Do you remember the Crystal Maze, where a mixed bunch of strangers compete to solve a puzzle against time. Well Spanish writers/directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodriga Sopeña have come up with a new angle.
Lure four of the top mathmatical thinkers to a remote, dilapidated building. Lead them to a large, beautiful room, beautiful furnishings, bookcases full of learned books, blackboard and a magnificent feast. Then set up the mathmaticians to answer a series of enigmas. Easy. Well yes there is one small catch. If they don’t answer the puzzles in a short time the room starts shrinking, driven by four power ramps, which will eventually crush the poor victims to death.
Each of the mathematicians is sent a puzzle and if they solve it with ten days they will be invited to a weekend party to solve the ‘greatest ever enigma’. They are then sent instructions on how to get to the party.
So a group of four meet on the shore of a remote lake. Each has been told not to bring their mobile phone. Each has been told not to use their own name, but to use the name of a famous mathematician, such as Pascal. They follow clues to the room, which is the Fermat’s Room of the title.
They are met by Fermat, who invites them to eat. He is then called away by phone to a hospital, where he daughter is ill. He leaves, leaving his coat behind and then the games begin. They find they are locked in the room and soon a phone rings with a text enigma to solve. Each problem has to be solved within a specific time. If it is not the walls start slowly closing in crushing anything in their way. When a solution is solved the movement stops, until the next time they run out of time.
Through the tension we learn a number of facts about the victims. We realise that there is a motive for Fermat to kill one. We realise that there are links between two of the others. However, the tension mounts as the room gets smaller and nothing will stop the steady pressure of the presses.
Opinion
The first two thirds of the film are really gripping. There is always the background of what is actually happening. There is the constant race against time. The characters are interesting and have some depth. But the conclusion, though rational, is not strong enough to give justice to the rest of the film.
For this reason I give the the film three stars.
Actors:
Santi Millán, Lluis Homar, Federico Luppi, Elena Ballesteros, Federico Luppi.
Links
Official Fermat’s Room Website
Guardian Review of Fermat’s Room
Rotten Tomatoes’ Review