Fermat's Room

Spain’s answer to the Saw franchise sees its victims forced to use their brains rather than their bodies to survive the game. In Fermat’s Room, five mathematicians must solve a series of riddles and puzzles within a specific time frame in order to stop the walls of their room closing in and crushing them. Some of these conundrums may sound vaguely familiar to viewers, but the quick-thinking of the characters is always impressive, while writer-directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena achieve a taut, tense atmosphere and a gripping plot with a tiny budget and a limited, enclosed space. This claustrophobic setting puts an unforgiving focus on the actors, who successfully create believable, desperate characters. However, while it keeps viewers guessing, Fermat’s Room is let down by its conclusion, which is unsatisfactorily sudden and not as clever as the initial premise suggests it ought to be.