cypher

a little low-budget film by the creators of ‘cube’. cypher presents itself remarkably well for the first two-thirds of the film, then unfortunately loses its focus for the conclusion.
nevertheless it was well worth the $10 i eventually paid for it after renting it to check it out.

the premise i think could still have remained the same, but the excecution of the conclusion was just too wacky. the film starts out as such an abstract/disorienting presentation, and it really is excellent. sure it doesn’t reach the heights of solaris or mulholland drive, but it does have some amazing photography. the introduction to rita foster (played my Lucy Liu) is stunning, both in respects to photography and veiled meaning. rita’s initial interactions with sullivan/thursby (Jeremy Northam) and the way the two of them behave was performed very well indeed. i’ve never really been impressed by Lucy Liu, and this film is no different with the exception of the afore mentioned scene. i don’t think she brought much to the role, and really any actor could have performed the way she did. well – perhaps that one scene nailed it – where other actors may have performed better throughout, perhaps they wouldn’t have done that scene so well.

what begins as a beautifully stylized piece ends up in an all shooting all exploding bond-esque mess. this film could have easily have held its unique presentation in similar fashions to films such as gatacca and solaris. the action was unneccessary and disappointing – not to mention that the entire film really isn’t an action film, so we’ve all seen better countless times before. because the film pursues the generic action-film style, the capturing conclusion to the narrative appears weak. on my second viewing i thought no, it’s alright – you just have to look past the running and jumping and shooting. the characters’ motivations for their actions are justified, they just aren’t honoured at the end of the film. of-course every film deserves its own artistic direction, but i still felt that if this had taken a similar attitude to solaris’ presentation, its quality would have been infinitely increased.

negatives aside, i very much love the presentation of the first two thirds of the film, and as a budget title, it’s well worth the money just for that. i must also say that Jeremy Northam puts in a brilliant performance all round (tacky action endings notwithstanding). he really does pull off his role quite well, suiting the presentation style perfectly.

while the narrative is not as intriguing as the dvd slip-cover would have you believe, if you’re open enough, you may just be able to see past the premise, and appreciate the fantastic visual style.