Review of Cypher (2002) by Arthur M — 23 Sep 2011

Dominate our attention for several minutes, with brief and intense lapses of excitement, is the least a movie can do for us. Most usually considered ''average'' films serve exactly that cup of tea, not much to be remembered, but innovative and stimulating enough to renovate the feeling of enjoying a movie with no further interest. The sci-fi/noir thriller [i]Cypher[/i] lies comfortably in the realm of average productions described above.

Entertaining enough, stylish to delight the eyes, compelling to caught the minimum of our deliberation and with a capital twist in the plot to regale the enduring audience. These are basically the positive points. Althought, truth be told, it is hard to go wrong with a corporation's espionage story; this whole theme is charismatic by nature, and director Vincenzo Natali's credentials made him just the person to administer such a topic. The direction and production, nifty as always (although as always blatantly unhewn), could not survive without Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu, the perfect faces to incorporate the somehow impersonal emotionless of the film.

Clearly, the purpose of the plot revolves on sustaining its trickiness and glamour, way occupied on that to demonstrate any concern on character appeal or development. And despite the good effort on preserve the interest, the major twist was not revealed in the most exciting way possible, being followed by a rather silly happy ending. But well, a stereotyped finale and forgettable characters are the main trademark of average movies anyway.