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USA 2003
Directed by
Vincenzo Natal
95 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
3 stars

Cypher

Synopsis: Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam) is a middle-management corporate type who gets a job as a company spy. Soon what he thought would be dashingly naughty turns out to be seriously deadly as he finds himself a pawn in the machinations of two ruthless rival companies. His only recourse is to put his trust in a mysterious freelance agent, Sebastian Rooks and his beautiful emissary, Rita (Lucy Liu).

Although branded with the sub-genre tag of "futuristic thriller", Cypher is set in the apparently not-too-distant future of corporate America and, mercifully, does not fetishize technological whiz-bangery or wallow in Lucasian special effects. Its stylistic orientation is more akin to the state-of-the-art chicness of a television ad for the latest BMW – a computer-controlled world of colouristic minimalism, immaculate surfaces and climate-controlled rarefaction, whilst the narrative focus stays firmly on the plot’s twists and turns. There are so many of these that by the time one gets to the end of the tale, as mercilessly, one layer of deception is peeled off after another, one’s not quite sure who’s done what to who or why. All this makes for an exciting, entertaining ride although some may decry, nothing more. That is a pity, for this is a film that could have been much more.

Whilst the makers may not have had greater ambitions they are likely to lose both ways. On the one hand the clever plot and designer production values will appeal more to a sophisticated audience than those looking simply for lots of big bangs. The casting of Jeremy Northam, an actor better known for quality costume dramas like Gosford Park and The Golden Bowl in the lead instead of your typical bullet-headed, steroid-enhanced action hero specialist gives the film, if not plausibility, then a significant point of identification. Yet on the other hand the lack of any mooring in the viewer’s experience leaves this as yet another escapist fantasy. This is particularly evident in the film’s resolution which, with its natty helicopter, (blithely murderous) explosions and then, seductively blue Pacific waters, is worthy of any Bond megaplex spectacle.

The missed opportunity here was to tell a tale for our times rather than simply to entertain. I am thinking here of films like Sydney Pollack’s 1975 spy thriller, Three Days of The Condor or John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which explore the vulnerability of the individual in the face of big organizational deception, at the same time as being entertaining. As with so many contemporary American films, Cypher favours style over substance and, in aiming to please, neatly resolves into just another love song to its own genre..

 

 

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