Fermat's Room (2007)

Let me say in advance that, even it is a general audience movie it does the best with a bit of maths on the background, but still a very good movie indeed.

The strongest point are the top performances of Lluis Homar and Federico Luppi, finest actors very skilled in theaters and movies, supported by unexpectedly good beginners, Santi, Elena & Alejo, more trained in plain roles of teen comedies and late shows than in cinema, they do quite well and finally you understand why were they chosen for this film.

The plot is atracting from the very beginning, the most of time it goes on real-time action, with a countdown that will kill many of them if several mind games are not achieved. A new shape for a known theme, yes, but it works 100%.

And now the maths class: Every character is playing a role of a great mathematic and both players and characters were selected to fit into that role: Hilbert is an old mathematic devoted to the riddles, Pascal an engineer thinking only on the commercial application of any idea, Fermat an enigmatic person showing no more that what you want to see and Galois a young genoius but not used to think on advance. The life of those people plays a little on the movie. So now you can see what a good selection of players for this roles.

The mathematical riddles are explained easily and with no so much relationship with the main plot so they are not required to be understood to follow the film, but of course is a good point if you do it.

And finally, the Fermat's Last Theorem: It is already demonstrated so don't expect any surprise on this movie. But if you want, you can take a look to the Goldbach's Conjecture, maybe it helps.

Fmovies: 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.

........ ... .......... ........... ............ ......... ..from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA...and ORLANDO, FL

Fermat's Room is a Psychological Mystery/Thriller offering from Spain that gets off to a very sure-footed start and seemed to hold out the promise of a very fast-paced and taut film. The story line itself is entertaining enough, but the characters never really flagged my interest. Basically, the chemistry was lacking!

FERMAT certainly did have its moments, but fell considerably short of its potential. It really grabbed me from the opening credits, although hours later a little cerebral ricocheting had me recalling other films that had similar opening credit scenes. Unfortunately, no titles come to mind. If you watch it, let me know if your memory serves you better than mine! Its not often you see a film that is both Co-Directed AND Co-Written by 2 young men (both 30 at the time) from different small towns in Spain.

Luis Piedrahita, who gets top-billing both as Co-Director and Co-Writer, is a real Renaissance man. IMDb lists him as a Writer, Director, Actor, Comedian and award-winning Magician, of all things! Ah, and therein lies the rub! Like its #1 Co-Director, FERMAT is just TOO busy, trying to pack in too much, too quickly, in its 85 minutes! At times, it wants to go in 5 different directions all at once!

To save themselves, four Math prodigies are forced to solve a slew of math problems/riddles. Another reviewer mentioned the problems shift gradually from left(logic) to right (intuitive) brain function...Yes, that's right, but I didn't really get it during the film...and I'm still in higher Math overload! Of course, when it comes to Math, I make Forrest Gump look like Stephen Hawkins!

FERMAT needed another 20 minutes for more character development and to re- work its pace so that viewers could better absorb more of what's going on without feeling so stressed and lost. I liked the name of the boat. Did you catch it?...Pythagoras!

6*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!....

Fermat's Room fmovies. Considering Luis Piedrahita is a famous Spanish comedian, Rodrigo Peña is behind several TV shows and Santi Millan is to Humor what Aleister Crowley was to occultism : The wickedest man on earth, plus this is their first movie experience.. it takes a considerable amount of faith to buy a ticket for a movie like this.

Then they tell you about the subject of the movie: How could a movie with 4 mathematicians locked in a room could be interesting? But there was something really fresh about this gang that made me want to see it.. I guess I like crazy people! First of all.. All the characters are delightfully drawn, like the old "Airport" movies, you are given a background of each one of them until they meet for a curios party: An unknown person hosts a math competition, invitation only, no cellphones or escort allowed.

From that point on you feel like one of the characters discovering the story as it unfolds to them.. There is no way you can imagine what lays ahead and if that were not enough they'll keep you busy with riddles and math games.

Do not fear being abused with dense mathematical issues hardly understandable to anyone, this is for all audiences and will keep you tied to your seat until the end.

"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.

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.