Written by Linda
November 08, 2009
Fermat's Room with its relatively simple premise—with great consequences—plays like an episode of The Twilight Zone. And that's a good thing.
A bunch of intellectuals get a mysterious letter from an equally mysterious person named Fermat. The letter instructs them to solve a puzzle by a certain date. If successful, they will receive an exclusive invitation. It turns out, only four people are successful. They follow the instructions, and arrive at the side of a remote lake at the designated time. A rowboat and a waiting car later, the foursome find themselves in a strange abandoned-looking warehouse that has all the coziness of a dinner party on the inside.
All the invitees are given pseudonyms. An older mathematician is Hilbert, his young hot-shot competition is Galois, a disheveled middle-aged man is Pascal, and the lone brilliant woman is Olivia. A silver-haired man comes into the room, which is set for dinner, has walls lined with shelves of books, and some comfy chairs and a chalkboard for working out problems. Abruptly, the man (their host Fermat, they assume), is called away by an urgent phone call. They are left with a PDA which rings. They are instructed that they must solve an enigma within a certain amount of time. And the clock is ticking.
This setup sets the pace for the whole film. An enigma (a tricky brain-teaser that is almost like a riddle) pops-up on the PDA, and they must work together to solve it in a set period of time. They very quickly learn that there are consequences to not working fast. Like, say, did you just see the walls move? Is this room getting smaller as we waste time arguing? As they fight to answer the questions they also begin unraveling the real enigma: why they are there, and why the mysterious Fermat chose them in the first place.
Fermat's Room is not the most brilliant thriller—there were some plot-points that didn't tie-up satisfactorily at the end—however it is a fun and brisk thrill ride getting there. If option 1 is living, and option 2 is getting squished like a bug amongst a bunch of books, the stakes are pretty clear. If given an enigma with one minute to solve it, how long do you think you would survive?
