# Cube (1997)

### reviewed by
Alex Ioshpe

MPAA: Rated R for some strong sci-fi violence/gore and language Runtime: Canada:90 / UK:87 / France:86 / Japan:91

Directed by: Vincenzo Natali Screenplay: Gerami Manson, Andre Bijelich and Vincenzo Natali Cast: Nicole De Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hawlet, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Raine Robson, Maurice Dean Wint

    RATING: 10/10

Six persons: a police officer, an escape artist, a doctor, a math - genius, an engineer and a mentally demented boy, wake up inside a giant, mysterious complex. None of them remember how they got there or where they are. There is no food or water, no reason, logic or explanations. Instinctively they try to explore the structure, but soon find out that it is a Rubik's Cube-like prison. A complex of some 17,000 interconnected, perfectly square equal cells, filled with traps, deadly ways and dangerous paths. And so the increasingly paranoid prisoners must co-operate, using their different abilities, moving from block to block in order to reach the surface. What is the purpose of this? Is somebody watching them? Meanwhile their strength is running out and their minds start changing...

The first-time director Vincenzo Natali creates an incredible atmosphere. Claustrophobic and nerve-wracking. Shocking and original. The feeling of being trapped, isolated and slowly going paranoid has rarely been manipulated so well as in this movie. The film slowly transforms into a terrifying psyho-thriller, where the humanistic attitude is lost in the harsh competition for survival. Slowly you see how these normal people change into --->animals. Their minds become more frightening than the horrible traps around them. The characters and the situation itself are so primal, so grounded and basic that it momentary connects with the audience. There is something indescribably frightening about such simplicity. It effectively dismisses all unnecessary technical and scientific details and concentrates on the most important -- the human elements, an issue almost forgotten by sci-fi directors of today. We can literally dive into people, exploring their complex characters. Important philosophical, ethical and moral issues are raised.

No unnecessary characters or scenes delude you from the purpose. There are only six people and the only scene is the cube. The characters undergo an evolution that has rarely been captured on film. The psychological aspect of this film is unusually complex and incredibly effective. The audience knows as much as the characters, desperately trying to figure out the purpose of their situation and a way out of it. Is it a governmental experiment? Aliens? A sick joke? Virtual reality? The aspect of time disappears completely and after a while you won't remember what your past world looks like. For you there is nothing except the cube. Outside of it -- nothing exists. Maybe there is no point in escaping? Maybe it is impossible? Maybe there will be nothing outside the cube?

The ending is as mysterious and original as the rest of the film, and (unlike in most science fiction films) it doesn't alienate it from the rest of the picture, making it look primitive (such as in 'Dark City' and '13th Floor'). Nothing is obvious. Nothing is primitive. Nothing is conventional. And all you can do is presume and guess. In the beginning the performances may seem a bit flawed, but they quickly recover and by the end of this film nobody questions their authenticity. Diana Magnus' fascinating art direction is an incredible achievement. The sets are complex, strange and yet completely convincing. The rest of the team handles the job well, though not quite award worthy. In the end it is Natali who deserves all the credit for his dark, unpleasant vision.

'Cube' is a story about ordinary people and products of our safe, protected society that are suddenly transferred to a place where everything is unknown, where nothing is safe or obvious, where no one except themselves can protect them. And here, where only the strongest survives, the makeup is gone, the mask slips off and the true, pure, savage human nature is revealed. It is a story about the ways of science seen from a lab-rat's eyes. And here the cube is a symbol of science itself -- cruel, and too complex and powerful for our own meaningless stupidity. The film is a representation of the human being -- the specter of emotions, an analysis of the human mind and human nature. Natali has created a brilliant and original psycho - analytic tale that is probably one of the greatest science fiction films that hit the silver screen during this decade.

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews