Poor characterisation detracts from original idea

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2000)

Cube, while wholly original and engaging, suffers from one major flaw, its characters.
As a concept, the film is faultless. Take 5 different people from different backgrounds and place them into a void of uncertainty and the unknown. From scene to scene they have to interact and help each other in order to discover a way of escaping from the spiders web. To an extent aswell, the film delivers on this level. Tension is created between the character (if seemingly manufactured and false at times) is present, the five stereotypes realise their difference, their weaknesses and their strengths and continue on in their plight. As a background to this, the concept of the Cube, a squared prison that these people have been unknowingly placed in serves to as to the mysterium of the story. We 'are' drawn in and we 'are' intrigued. So where does the film falter? Characters.
When I watched this film, I found that out of the five different characters, only one seemed remotely likeable and real. That character being Leaven, wonderfully acted by Nicola De Boeur. Aside from Leaven's innocent, yet intelligent mind, we are left with four wholly unlikeable people whose only purpose in life seems to be to hinder and to annoy. Quentin, the stereotypical black cop. Brutal, family man who beat his children but who snaps at the slightest twinge. Holloway, the paranoid, neurotic doctor who seems to spend every waking hour of her days dreaming up far fetched conspiracy theories. Worth, the designer of the exterior who feels that it isn't important to tell everyone that he knows what they are inside, when quizzed as to why not, "I didn't ask" is the lamest and most wholly selfish reply anybody could give. And finally, Kazan, the mentally handicapped, who despite the morals of the story, does act as a liability. His only use is to turn everyone against each other. When his purpose is finally revealed, even then he serves to turn person against person.
This is a story about characters. The only trouble is, we need characters we can identify with, not characters who we deplore. It almost seems fitting that the only person to escape from the Cube is the one person who has the least chance of making it on the outside.
Great idea. Bad characters.