Fermat's Room

Fermat's room, or La Habitacion de Fermat, was a 2007 Spanish movie starring Alejo Sauras, Elena Ballesteros, Lluis Homar, Santi Millan, and Federico Luppi. It was directed by Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena. The also served as the co-writes of the screenplay; and they did an incredible job with it. This movie had everything going for it and it was amazing

Several posts ago, I posted about Remember O Goddess, a Korean independent film I got the chance of viewing the preview of. Now I've also invaded Spanish cinema, much thanks to another request I got. The thing I like about requests is that they also serve as recommendations to films I must see. It allows me to expand my scope in terms of movie watching and that's always a good thing. I particularly appreciated how I got immersed in a very different type of cinema, one I haven't gone to yet. It was also great that the first Spanish movie I ever saw was this thriller.

The whole idea of the movie was fascinating to me. I never liked Mathematics when I was in school. But a couple of years ago I saw a Japanese movie called "The Professor and His Beloved Equation," which was also a math movie. That movie made me appreciate the greatness of numbers. In this movie, I again appreciated math. There must be something about math and movies that works magically cause I greatly enjoyed both films. I enjoyed how they utilized the numbers, the equations, and even the mathematicians to make the story flow. I'd like to give emphasis to the names since that scene gave me chills, and as I'm typing this, I got another one. That was insane.

This was different though as it was a thriller movie. It was a race against time, and solving more enigmas would buy them more time. The moment they take more time that was required, the room would start shrinking. That's the main premise of the movie, and that, for me, was a fascinating idea. The conceptualization, the writing, and the execution all came together. I also liked how there was a back story of how these people were related, there was a lot of substance to it and it worked. It toyed with a lot of things but remained technical as well. From the employment of numbers to the science of the technology involved, it all played equally important roles to make the film the awesome movie that it is.

Te movie was very engaging and very exciting. Just to illustrate how horrifying yet exciting it was at the same time, my heart was beating fast, and I couldn't sit still. How could you not feel for the people stuck in a shrinking room, solving mathematical problems for survival. I also liked the twists it had, it was well crafted and it was pure brilliance. I liked the transitions from casting the victims, to the meet-up, to the room itself, to the identification of who was behind it all. I liked the themes the movie used. I liked everything actually.

If you want to give Spanish cinema a try, or European cinema for that matter, this movie is a good place to start. Let me also say for those people afraid of thrillers, don;t be afraid of this one. It's a thriller but it's not a typical thriller. It's an intelligent one. In fact, this movie is probably one of the more intelligent films created. This can potentially leave viewers in awe and that is a clear sign of a really good movie.

If you also want to send requests or recommendations, you can email me at mrfilmreviewer@yahoo.com. You can also follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/#!/sirfilmreviewer