The filmmakers have us hooked with a terrific mystery and the challenge of a good puzzle.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2009

The best part is that, for once, it's a film about smart people.

Full Review | Oct 2, 2009

... a cerebral thriller with a different kind of locked-room mystery.

Full Review | Sep 28, 2009

Fermat's Room appears to be about maths, but it's more of a whodunnit, and a surprisingly watchable one at that.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 5, 2009

This is an ingenious, relentlessly exciting film, a moral fable at once visceral and cerebral.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2009

An ingenious Spanish thriller about maths, sex, ambition and dog poo.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 2, 2009

The diabolical m.o. in these things is never really satisfactory, and even the fun of the conceit is somewhat muffled by the film's lurid colour design and headachey close-ups.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 29, 2009

Tense and brainy. And thoroughly entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 29, 2009

Maths boffins + twist of mystery - patchy ending = uneven thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2009

The maths element of the film, which on the surface is its USP, feels like dressing on a taut but tawdry genre thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/6 | May 29, 2009

God knows I'm no maths genius but even I can spot that if all four hydraulic presses are pushing the walls inwards at once they would simply jam.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 29, 2009

The high tension that should come with a race-against-time scenario is never realised, and the film's solution to the enigma of who-what-and-why this all happened is disappointing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 29, 2009

It's all done with style, with very little of the strain you might expect from filming in such a restricted environment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2009

A confidently shot, fast-paced first feature.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 29, 2009

The possibility of being squished to a pulp always focuses the mind, although, as this by-the-numbers Spanish thriller proves, it doesn't necessarily make arithmetic any more interesting.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 29, 2009

This feature debut for co-directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopea is never quite as clever as it thinks it is, and there are some sizeable holes in the plot. Still, with its teasing sense of play, you won't be crawling the walls.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2009

The film is sufficiently tense, economical and fast-moving to warrant a Hollywood remake, but lacks the lethal menace or twisted ingenuity of the original Saw.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 29, 2009

An ingenious Spanish thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2009

There's something dreadfully pedantic about this locked-room mystery.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 29, 2009