Four mathematical geniuses are invited to spend a weekend at an island retreat and solve the greatest enigma of all time. Their mysterious host is a man called Fermat (Federico Luppi) who allots each of the strangers a pseudonym drawn from some of history’s most renowned mathematicians: distinguished “Hilbert” (Lluis Homar), cocky student “Galois” (Alejo Sauras), feisty “Oliva” (Elena Ballesteros), and troubled inventor “Pascal” (Santi Millán). After a mysterious phone call forces Fermat to leave, the group find themselves locked inside. The room is a death-trap that will crush them unless they solve a series of puzzles and uncover the secret that connects them all and why someone wants them all dead.
This ingeniously constructed Spanish thriller bears a superficial resemblance to the indie hit Cube (1997), but the scenario dates back all the way to Agatha Christie. Like the Saw films this pits troubled protagonists against complex puzzles designed by a master fiend, yet trades “torture porn” for infinitely more rewarding insights into its characters and soul-searing moments of psychological cruelty. Each puzzle is designed to reveal something about the characters, drawn from their varying reactions to the situation. Each of them gets a chance to demonstrate genius, but also a weakness that serves as a twist of the knife.
Early on, “Pascal” - the humblest, but possibly the sharpest of the geniuses - realises Fermat wants him dead for hospitalizing his daughter in a hit and run, but things aren’t that simple and gradually it becomes apparent not all these people are strangers. Cutaways to Fermat’s drive across the desert hint he isn’t quite the mastermind we initially suspected. Quite cleverly the film unwinds as a variation on an age-old riddle, which “Hilbert” himself brings up: a shepherd has to get a cabbage, a sheep and a wolf across the river, but his boat holds only two passengers. How can he do it without the sheep eating the cabbage or the wolf eating the sheep?
Debuting directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña have a background in television talk shows and magic acts. They yoke the maximum amount of tension from the single location, bathed in colour palette of haunting orange, chocolate brown and deep red hues that darken as the room gets smaller and smaller. It’s impeccably acted and laden with witty asides including “Pascal’s” humble confession that his greatest invention is a duck-shaped popcorn maker, or the hilarious moment someone attributes a quote to Archimedes when it’s actually from TV’s MacGyver!
Nevertheless, though it grips from start to finish, the film offers no great philosophical undertones beyond the surface puzzle and the conclusion is rote. It comes across more like an exceptionally well made Twilight Zone episode, unlikely to reward repeat viewings.
