Bleak but endlessly inventive Canadian sci-fi

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2000)

"Cube" is certainly a unique movie. With only one set to play with, the movie sustains the interest throughout. Basically, it's high concept stuff. Six manifestly incompatible characters are trapped inside a massive cube full of interconnected rooms, some of which contain deadly traps. All the characters have to do to escape is avoid the traps, work out the structure of the cube and try to get on with each other. Unfortunately, it's the latter that proves hardest, as the movie decides to illustrate Sartre's dictum that hell is other people. The movie has several scenes of almost unbearable tension - I was wincing and hiding my face when the characters faced a room which they could only pass through if they remained silent. There are also a couple of startling, gory scenes early on. The film's twists are always well thought out, and the scenes containing the group slugging it out with their emotional problems are devastating. The problem, however, is that some of the characters seem a little pat - they become stereotypes, and the acting is rarely good enough to hide the stilted characterization. That said, if you like mathematical puzzles, or you just like a movie that has ideas and is prepared to follow them through, you should check this one out. However, the film's bleak messages about human nature may prove a little hard to stomach.