Product Details

• Actors: Alejo Sauras, Lluis Homar, Santi Millan
• Directors: Luis Piedrahita;Rodrigo Sopena
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO
• DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002EOVXEC
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,033 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Fermat's Room" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A mind bender --Cinematical

Product Description

ONE ROOM. FOUR GENIUS MINDS.
TOGETHER, THEY MUST THINK INSIDE THE BOX... OR DIE.

Four famed mathematicians, all strangers to one another, are invited to the remote home of a mysterious man known only as Fermat . Once there, they are locked in a room and given a series of logic puzzles that must be solved within one minute each. For each late answer, hydraulic presses will push the walls closer together. Why have they been placed in this elaborate death trap? What is their connection to each other? And for genius minds about to be brutally crushed, is staying alive the ultimate enigma? Federico Luppi (Guillermo Del Toro s CRONOS and PAN S LABYRINTH) and Lluís Homar (Almodóvar s BAD EDUCATION and BROKEN EMBRACES) star in the stunning Spanish thriller that The Daily Express calls ingenious and thoroughly entertaining. FERMAT S ROOM is a nail-biting fight for survival!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A four-star room on a 2-star DVD, November 15, 2009

By	Alex Faber "Author of 'Surface:Matrix'" (Northern NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This Spanish thriller is clearly influenced by the movie "Saw," but brings more intelligence and many twists to the table. As the movie begins, four people who are skilled mathematicians receive a cryptic letter that leads them to an isolated building wherein they soon find themselves trapped, with walls that start to close in on them that can only be stalled by solving a variety of complex problems. Before too long, we begin to learn more about the backgrounds of the people involved, their complex connections, and the truth behind their captor in twists and reveals that are skillfully and increasingly tantalizingly dispersed to us. The movie features a taut pace so that, while the majority of the movie takes place in a single room, it never gets stale or tiresome, and while there are a few plot holes, the characters are well-defined and the structure of the story is strong, with a fairly satisfying ending (complete with a final wink to the audience).

Also, as the other reviews here have noted, while the people recruited in the movie specialize in mathematics, the challenges they're given to solve are not based in math, but more so in logic and probability. Yet, while some have taken issue with this, I think it makes complete sense, as math is not solely a field of numbers and the like, but deals more generally with problem-solving, logistics, probabilities, strategies, connections, and so on, and all of the problems they're given fall within these realms (we even see one of the people in the room playing chess in an early scene). Secondly, and more obviously, giving these people logic-based questions and challenges allows us to try to put our own intellects and abilities to the test rather than excluding us from the battle of wits.

The movie is presented in Spanish audio with English subtitles (there is no English audio option), and the DVD comes in a standard black case with cover artwork but no chapter insert. Also, the DVD itself is frustrating to play, as the multitude of previews that play before the menu appears can be skipped on an individual basis, but you cannot bypass them all with the "Menu" button.

While not the best DVD, the movie itself, though imperfect, is strong enough to keep your attention and even warrant multiple viewings. Thanks for reading.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Overpromises and underdelivers, and how, October 14, 2009

By	Ashish Kumar (Singapore) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This film is as pretentious as you can get - the concept is great, but the execution is dumber than dumb. Mathematicians surely wouldn't be tested by juvenile riddles of the kind one gets on forwarded emails. The device of a shrinking room is fine, but again, an event in the end seems to violate the basics of mechanics.

I started watching the movie with high hopes, thinking it might be on the same level as "The Oxford Murders" which I am half way through. The point is not that the movie needs to have more arcane mathenatics - that would make it too limited. It's just that it should be consistent. If the people involved are great mathematicians, they should be solving complex stuff.

Highly avoidable.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting concept, terrible execution..., October 3, 2009

By	LoopHole5 (Texas) - See all my reviews

This movie started off alright, but soon rolled down hill... and kept rolling. The writing was cheesy and seemed like a rip-off of "Clue", and "Saw".