Dr. Morbius id:

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 storyline itself is entertaining enough, but the characters never really flagged my interest. IMO, the chemistry between them just wasn't there! 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 mins.! At times, it wants to go in 5 different directions all at once! To save themselves, 4 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 Hawkings! 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 get it?... Pythagaros! 3.25* My Motivation4 Watching? BluRay's REV. Also Read MovieFreak66's.

moviesorfilm:

This was a very pleasant surprise! When I read the synopsis and Q'd this up I had already thought of writing it off as a foreign version of the "Cube" series or one of the other many rip-off versions of this genre. But, this was engrossing and extremely well scripted--never a boring moment. The story centers on four people trapped in a shrinking room where they are given "enigmas" to solve. There is a mysterious fifth stranger in all this as well. And, of course, there is a link between all the people and all are suspect until the very end which has a plausible, well thought out finish. Everything was good--the acting, writing and creative story. Be warned that this is in Spanish with subtitles so you might have to read fast to catch the action on screen but it was well-worth it. I can highly recommend this as a great foreign thriller.

Peter Olafson:

A clever movie, if a rather soulless one. We barely know any of these folks by the time they gather in the Spanish countryside and it's hard to get too worked up about the potential smooshing of four strangers. We do get to know them better en route to the finish as confessions of past corruptions mingle with solutions to classic logic puzzles. (These briefly halt the walls of the ever-shrinking room.) But that didn't help me like the four any better -- being that, when they're revealed, they're revealed as pretty awful people of one stripe or another. (Typically, people sealed up in locked rooms by movie directors have something coming to them.) The movie does generate a Sleuth-like feel toward the end -- due mostly to all the machinations of the participants (and in some part to Lluis Homar's resemblance to Laurence Olivier). But it lacks a final twist of the dagger to really cement itself in our minds, and that proves the difference between clever and classic.