Fermat's Room (DVD)

After solving a riddle that was sent to them, four people are invited to a special gathering where someone calling himself Fermat promises they’ll work on one of maths’ greatest unsolved enigmas. Told to adopt the names of famous mathematicians to keep things anonymous, they all arrive at an isolated location where they have dinner in a strange red room. Fermat is then called away and as soon as he’s gone, the invitees discover they’re now trapped.

Not long afterwards a message arrives for them via a PDA, asking them to solve a mathematical riddle in less than a minute. When they fail to do so, they realise that all four walls are now gradually moving in on them, and that unless they continue to answer the puzzles they’ll soon get completely squished. However, who is putting them through this trial? Does is have to do with the fact that it appears one of the participants ran over Fermat’s daughter? Is it a result of the secret connections between some of those in the room? Or has it something to do with a famous mathematical problem that one of the people involved has announced they’ve finally found the proof for?

Making movies about maths is a tough ask, and Fermat’s Room does it by being sort of about maths, but not really. There’s a lot of arithmetic in the movie, but it’s more a construct around which to base a nifty little, single room, whodunit thriller, where the walls are literally coming in on everyone (and if you’re wondering how all four walls are moving in, it is possible, but you’ll have watch the movie to see how). As others have noted, it’s Saw without the gore.

I do have a bit of advice when watching this Spanish movie – don’t think about it too much about it. It’s great fun while you’re viewing it as you try to work out what’s going on and why, how everybody is connected and whether there’s any way out. However as soon as you start thinking about it, the more implausible the whole thing is, and the eventual explanations, while passably clearing up the whys, don’t actually justify an awful lot of the coincidences or the fact that the whole ridiculously complicated set-up relies on the participants acting exactly as the person behind it all wants them to, and that the mastermind would need to have a control over events that would be impossible to pre-plan. If the writers could have come up with a slightly more rounded explanation for everything, it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but as soon as you start thinking about, what is a pretty cool movie undoubtedly starts to seem rather illogical, so just don’t think too much and enjoy the ride.

When you’re actually watching Fermat’s Room it’s very entertaining, managing to keep the tension and pace up, partly thanks to some excellent performances from its four lead characters. It also has quite a few ingenious little elements and some very nice shots, which goes some way to balancing out the plot holes and slightly illogical events.

The ‘making of’ featurette is also worth a look, as making a movie in a room that keeps getting smaller was an interesting technical challenge, solved by a very clever set that was built so all four walls really could move in on each other and could also be removed for ease of shooting. There are a few other minorly interesting features as well, but it’s the ‘making of’ featurette that’s the one to head for.

Overall Verdict: I wouldn’t be at all surprised if an English-language remake of Fermat’s Room was made at some point, as it is great concept that delivers on its tense premise, even if some of it doesn’t 100% make sense.

Special Features:
‘Making Of’ Featurette
Deleted And Extended Scenes
3D Plans
Outtakes
Rehearsal Footage

Reviewer: Tim Isaac