I like minimalist motion pictures. This appears to be one of such a kind: one man, one room, a few other voices. A man, a broker, is locked up in an oven for a reason unknown, but a menacing voice demands from him one million dollars unless he becomes an overcooked tart. He does not have such the sum but is given time to find and transfer it.
The man is not incommunicado - he has a phone and can call whoever he wants which includes his brother a cop, his mother, his business partners. What strikes the viewer during his phone talks is the tone of the voice of his interlocutors: strangely detached and disinterested, although help is offered.
All hinged on what and how would be constructed on the basis of a not-too-original premise. Devilish disembodied voice taxing the trapped anti-hero, foreboding music created some tension and mysterious atmosphere. Unluckily, about 45 minutes into the movie the script runs out of ideas and sees no direction where it should go. The phone exchanges become sillier and sillier and even the "voice" veers from one unsubstantial comment to another.
I guessed the ending half way through the film - the hero's family has arranged that whole ordeal for him - and I was wishing I would be proved wrong because then this might be something not quite worthless. But I was right and there the laughable closing coda disintegrates whatever of value was presented earlier.
However, there is a little twist at the end: don't swindle a swindler.
The man is not incommunicado - he has a phone and can call whoever he wants which includes his brother a cop, his mother, his business partners. What strikes the viewer during his phone talks is the tone of the voice of his interlocutors: strangely detached and disinterested, although help is offered.
All hinged on what and how would be constructed on the basis of a not-too-original premise. Devilish disembodied voice taxing the trapped anti-hero, foreboding music created some tension and mysterious atmosphere. Unluckily, about 45 minutes into the movie the script runs out of ideas and sees no direction where it should go. The phone exchanges become sillier and sillier and even the "voice" veers from one unsubstantial comment to another.
I guessed the ending half way through the film - the hero's family has arranged that whole ordeal for him - and I was wishing I would be proved wrong because then this might be something not quite worthless. But I was right and there the laughable closing coda disintegrates whatever of value was presented earlier.
However, there is a little twist at the end: don't swindle a swindler.