A chilling story of the way mathematics corrupts

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 1999)

I had the distinct pleasure of being able to watch this film in the theatre with a bona fide mathematician. His faith in this chosen discipline was flagging however, and he believed that seeing this film would strengthen his resolve. It did at first, as the maths equations and diagrams flowed out accompanied by thumping music to captivating effect. I heard him cry out "Maths is cool", but I believe that by the end he was nonplussed as his newfound enthusiasm had been stifled.
Described by someone, whose name I know not, as being the best maths based Jewish horror film of the year. This puts it into a category of film in which there are no rivals (me thinks), which is absolutely fair. I have never come across a film anything like it before, and its originality it thoroughly refreshing. Certainly one to talk about, and works in the opposite way to Good Will Hunting (both films are about boffins), in that it dissuades the viewer from thinking that it would be good to be so intelligent. Shares similar attributes to Clerks in that it was about the same budget, filmed in black and white and had a great original soundtrack. Though not as good a screenplay as Clerks, the adventurous camera work, a larger cast and more challenging subject matter mean that his film is deserving of a great deal of praise.
You all know the story, so I shan't bore you with that, but it has to be said that Max, together with his "personal notes" makes an intriguing, though largely shallow character. Bearing in mind that the entire film centres around, and is about, him, we are left feeling that we haven't actually discovered so much about him by the end. This could be attributable to the fact that there can't really be that much to know about a maths obsessed loner obsessed with patterns. Perhaps, but it still would have been nice for there to have been something interesting to discover to sustain the film for the duration. It does indeed run out of steam too far from the end as his mind ebbs further away.
The other characters in the film, though interesting in their own way, are ultimately too shallow to sustain interest for long. For example Max's tutor-cum-father-figure tells him a few anecdotes about past maths discoveries. This is all very well, but the anecdotes that he tells aren't exactly unknown by us, the general public, so I see little chance that Max would bear to sit through another telling. There are also many questions left unresolved at the end of the film, and we never really discover what Max's ultimate fate was, but I suppose that these are all the same elements that kept interest levels high in this surprisingly fast-paced flick.
Basically, if you don't like venturing much from standard Hollywood issue then you certainly wont enjoy this film, but if you are prepared to try something new then you could well enjoy it. Also, fans of art-house films will almost certainly enjoy this, as it is an excellent example of creative low budget independent filming.
Incidentally, did anyone else out there that has seen the film manage to catch the Chemical Brothers' UK tour? There is a distinct similarity between the introduction to the film and a certain video that is projected at the concert (I think it was during Hey Boy, Hey Girl).