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» Features » Maguffin » Reviews
| THE MAGUFFIN Cube Kathy Hofmeyr
If you haven’t seen this low-budget Canadian classic, you are missing out – big time! Made in 1997 by Vincenzo Natali, it is a short, sharp and very clever mystery/thriller with endless twists and genuinely intelligent plot points. It’s the classic prison-break story with a latter-day upgrade and a conspiracy-theory atmosphere. This film must have one of the cheapest budgets of all time – shot on a single set consisting of a fourteen-foot-by-fourteen-foot cube and using a single change of functional costumes, “Cube” provides conclusive proof that audiences can be held rapt and enthralled without the use of special effects, CGI, major explosions or Colin Farrell. Even the soundtrack is sparse – not the kind of OST you’d want to buy, ordinarily, but perfectly matched to the action with a breathless, simple theme that enhances every moment of delicious suspense. The premise is as simple as the set: six strangers with no apparent connection to each other find themselves trapped in what is essentially a massive Rubik’s cube. They can get from one room to another via trapdoors in the hope of finding an exit, but the catch is that some of the rooms are equipped with lethal booby traps. At first their escape plans are aimless and futile, but gradually the cube’s patterns reveal themselves and the characters begin to see that there may be a sinister purpose behind the apparently random course of events. Featuring some terrific performances from relative unknowns (including the decidedly dishy David Hewlett and Maurice Dean Wint), “Cube” is a sci-fi movie for people who hate sci-fi, a horror movie for people who hate horror and a thriller no film buff can afford to miss. In a world where massive budgets, big stars and over-the-top SFX are employed to conceal the almost complete absence of plot or intelligent dialogue, “Cube” is a welcome change. With plot, effects, costumes, cast pared down to the bare minimum, it is these often-ignored elements that are foregrounded. They do not disappoint. The script, like everything else, is stripped bare of pretension, loaded with nuance, clues and an occasional shot of black humour for good measure, and the plot holds one’s attention without ever becoming convoluted and hard to follow. If you are anything like me (which, God willing, you have been spared), you become disproportionately excited by meaningless and obscure bits of movie trivia. I was delighted to realise, on my third watching of the film, that each of the characters is named for a prison somewhere in the world. Obscure, indeed, but I do get a warm and squelchy sensation at the inclusion of little treatlets for type-A personalities like me. At the most intellectual level, “Cube” can be seen as an existential metaphor for life, death, the search for meaning in a disordered universe and the uncertainty of faith in – or fear of – a higher power. At the entertainment level, it’s just a damned frikkin’ good ride! | | |
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