Cypher

Morgan Sullivan (Northam) has landed a dream job at Digicorp. He has been employed as an industrial spy who travels to conventions and records what is said. This will add an element of intrigue to his boring, monotonous life and give him the chance to escape his domineering wife, if only for a few days. All is going well until he meets Rita (Liu) who tells him all is not what it seems and he is in fact a pawn in an industrial conflict between Digicorp and their bitter rivals Sunways.

The director of cult science fiction movie Cube, Vincenzo Natali returns with another inventive, intelligent piece of sci-fi.

When a script is strong and the central performances extremely engaging, there is no need for excessive special effects to make a science fiction movie standout. As with the Ethan Hawk, Uma Thurman genetic engineering plotted Gattaca, Cypher relies on plot not FX to drive the story along and produce an intelligent and engaging movie.

Key to this is the central performance by Jeremy Northam. You watch his character grow as more is revealed to him as the story progresses. Moving from a timid, downtrodden househusband to a confident, lying industrial spy, showcases Northam's character acting talent and sheer diversity to be able to totally transform during his performance. He drives the film with the audience following him on a journey of discovery as the plot twist and turns to its surprising conclusion.

Support comes in the form of the alluring Lucy Liu as the mysterious Rita. She drops into Morgan's life as the most crucial moments to point him in the right direction or even save his life. Lucy plays the elusive character with great gusto and you forget she is more than just an exceptionally beautiful face.

Timothy Webber and the much-undervalued Nigel Bennett are also very good as the heads of security from Sunways and Digicorp. Bennett especially shines in his role with just the right amount of arrogance to make you not trust him in the slightest.

Natali's direction is both subtle and striking. By not relying on excessive special effects he allows the story and characters to set the tone and progress of the movie. The overall look complements the story. By using little colour, filling the palette with greys and white as we are first introduced to Morgan's boring life and then slowing increasing the colour depth as more revelations are revealed, Natali's inventiveness with colour also offers hints and clues to what Morgan is seeing and uncovering.

Cypher is intelligent science fiction. While you may guess the ending just before the final revelation, the characters and story are strong enough to keep you gripped until then. Vincenzo Natali proves again that he is a director to watch and it would be very interesting to see what he could do with a bigger budget.

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2003