Cypher
Directed by Vincenzo Natali.
Stars Jeremy Northam, Lucy Liu.
Written up as “If the Matrix Reloaded left you wanting a seriously clever mind-meld, then Cypher is the film you’ve been waiting for... one of this year’s smartest thrillers.” **** -Michael Adams, Empire magazine.
And I would have to agree in partial to Michael Adams. First off, I think it helps to know that Cypher was directed by Vincenzo Natali, known for his work on Cube (1997). This movie has many nuances from his previous movie Cube and at times, unfortunately, many scenes where one can see the exact correlation to the previous movie. But don’t let this dishearten you, though it reuses Natali’s old style, it is more than made up with a new flair. Most noticeable to me when I watched it, was the similarities that it has to Gattaca (1997), not only in theme, namely hiding one’s own identity and living another, but also in camera work, lighting, background scenery and scene manipulation.
The general synopsis is that Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam) is a man unhappy with his current life, and seeks fulfilment elsewhere, in this case as a spy for the multinational corporation, Digicorp. His missions entail transmitting information from various conventions back to Ed Finster (Nigel Bennett). During one such convention he encounters a beautiful woman, Rita (Lucy Liu) who informs him of Digicorp’s brainwashing method. Morgan is then employed by Sunways, a rival corporation, as a double agent. From there it becomes a fight for Morgan to remember who he actually is, while at the same time trying to stay alive. Morgan gets one last assignment, where he must steal a data file from a secure network and give it to a new player, Rooks. This ends with dramatic consequences for his state of well-being.
I thought that Morgan Sullivan was well played by Jeremy Northam (The Net [1995], Amistad [1997] and others), who brought depth and mystery to the character as well as a certain amount of psychosis. Northam does well to skip from one character to another and not get them totally mixed up. As the viewer it was confusing as to who he was supposed to be at times, but gratifying to know that he was having just as hard a time.
Rita was played by Lucy Liu (Ally McBeal, Charlies Angels [2000], Charlies Angels: Full Throttle [2003] and many others) and as much as I would love to give her a great review, I must admit, that Lucy Liu was not much more than a supporting character, and acted as thus. Even though, I believe that she could have played the character a little different to what I usually see her playing: in other words, Lucy Liu.
Supporting cast members were, Ed Finster (Nigel Bennett) head of Digicorp and Frank Calloway (Timothy Webber) head of Sunways. Both played their parts well, namely that of two rival corporate heads that will do anything to get what they want.
If you enjoyed Gattaca and Cube then this movie is for you, if you didn’t, then I suggest that you give it a try, you may find more in it than you think. Definitely keeps you guessing till the end about identities and alignments.
Alex
