Cypher

As Seen On DVD

The word 'cypher' has many definitions: a nonentity; a cryptographic system; the key to a cryptographic system; a message written in a cryptographic system; to put in secret writing, among others. This gives you a clue to the nature of this film, which has layers and angles and secrets.

Set in the near future, Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam) is a sales rep who gets a new job in Digicorp which involves travelling around the country to attend conferences and transmit the talks that happen back to the company. However, after meeting an exotic stranger (Lucy Liu) at one such convention, he finds out that things are not what they seem and that the competitor of Digicorp, Sun Systems, want to use him to spy on Digicorp for them.

The concept of a corporate thriller might not sound particularly exciting at first, but the film draws you into its world with its style and mood. Northam makes a particularly good bland American and Liu is exotic to begin with. The film is directed by Vincenzo Natali, who enjoyed playing with characters and settings with his previous Cube, and he brings a strong sense of design and control, playing well to the tightly-written script. The secrets behind the secrets are slowly revealed, with the thriller aspect coming to the fore in the last act. With the exception of the reason behind the whole film being explained in the last line not quite coming quite up to scratch, this is a taut and well executed little film.

Rating: VID