Fermat's Room appears to be about maths, but it's more of a whodunnit, and a surprisingly watchable one at that.
Comment
08/17/09
Fermat's Room (2008)
68
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:17
Rotten:8
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: This stylish yet disappointingly predictable Spanish thriller is never as exciting or ingenious as it hopes to be.
Rated: 12A
Theatrical Release:29-05-2009
Reviews for Fermat's Room
This is an ingenious, relentlessly exciting film, a moral fable at once visceral and cerebral.
06/02/09
An ingenious Spanish thriller about maths, sex, ambition and dog poo.
06/02/09
The diabolical m.o. in these things is never really satisfactory, and even the fun of the conceit is somewhat muffled by the film’s lurid colour design and headachey close-ups.
05/29/09
Top CriticTense and brainy. And thoroughly entertaining.
05/29/09
Maths boffins + twist of mystery - patchy ending = uneven thriller.
05/29/09
Top CriticThe maths element of the film, which on the surface is its USP, feels like dressing on a taut but tawdry genre thriller.
05/29/09
Top CriticGod knows I’m no maths genius but even I can spot that if all four hydraulic presses are pushing the walls inwards at once they would simply jam.
05/29/09
Top CriticThe high tension that should come with a race-against-time scenario is never realised, and the film’s solution to the enigma of who-what-and-why this all happened is disappointing.
05/29/09
It's all done with style, with very little of the strain you might expect from filming in such a restricted environment.
05/29/09
Top CriticA confidently shot, fast-paced first feature.
05/29/09
The possibility of being squished to a pulp always focuses the mind, although, as this by-the-numbers Spanish thriller proves, it doesn't necessarily make arithmetic any more interesting.
05/29/09
This feature debut for co-directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña is never quite as clever as it thinks it is, and there are some sizeable holes in the plot. Still, with its teasing sense of play, you won’t be crawling the walls.
05/29/09
The film is sufficiently tense, economical and fast-moving to warrant a Hollywood remake, but lacks the lethal menace or twisted ingenuity of the original Saw.
05/29/09
An ingenious Spanish thriller.
05/29/09
There's something dreadfully pedantic about this locked-room mystery.
05/29/09
An ingenious and thoroughly entertaining Spanish thriller.
05/29/09
It's not as exciting or as clever as it thinks it is and is essentially sub-par Agatha Christie mixed with Cube.
05/28/09
As elegant and addling as the enigma(s) at its core, this claustrophobic thriller will keep viewers conjecturing right up to its humanist solution.
05/21/09
Top CriticThe filmmakers have us hooked with a terrific mystery and the challenge of a good puzzle.
11/11/09
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