El Codigo Secreto

THE NUMBERS STATION really reminds me of Anton Corbijn's 'The American' a lot. Emotionless espionage operatives discovering them. In both instances these males are swayed by females reminding them. Very different results to the stories, however.

THE NUMBERS STATION is definitely the more dark of the 2 films, filmed in the English country side, and in a forbidding fortress like facility in which codes in the form of 4 digit strings are broadcast relaying instructions to field espionage personnel and military units. John Cusack is the protagonist, an operative about to break down from the stress and unable to carry out an assignment, a murder. So he's reassigned to a numbers station, to more or less rest. He has no such luck when the station is attacked by parties who wish to broadcast false assignments. His partner, an attractive young woman played by Malin Akerman, is personable enough to invoke the fellow's emotions. Very poetic, and again, very similar to the Corbijn film.

Again I'm reminded of another film, Nicholas Ray's ON DANGEROUS GROUND , in which a detective who has become brutal and excessive, is reassigned to a rural murder case, becomes infatuated with a woman there and is relieved of some of his stress. Also I have an record by the rock band Porcupine Tree named 'Stupid Dream' in which one of the songs, 'Even Less', has a sample of these number strings being intoned. My guess is that it's a parody. I always wondered what they were.

7.6 of 10. Fast moving film that says a lot about intelligence operations and the mental state of the operatives, why they do what they do, and the risks/prices they pay.

In these, it's easy to get hung up in details of is it real or is this done exactly like that, or is the cryptography accurately handled. For the most part, this successfully portrays the details. Are there actually numbers stations? That's not the question to ask. Are there secret communications operations? Yes. Once you get past that, most people already know and accept there are secret killings, so you can simply enjoy the story (except for the product placement, of course).

Another problem with these films is they get too caught up in the message, talking, and forget about action, thrills, and the story. This does a surprisingly good job quickly setting up the plot and keeping the pace fast (best of all, without any car chase scenes or similar gimmicks). The soundtrack/score helps too.

Something like a simplified, but not dumbed down, Bourne Identity film.

Emerson Kent (John Cusack) and his superior Michael Grey (Liam Cunningham) are American secret agents sent to kill in New Jersey. Grey kills a young girl which leaves Kent struggling with the morality. Grey assigns him to a bland job to protect code operator Katherine (Malin Akerman) in a number station near Suffork, England. They are one of three two-men teams that maintain the station around the clock. One morning, they arrive and are attacked by mysterious gunmen. They get into the station to find the previous team had been forced to transmit instructions for 15 unauthorized missions and then killed. Kent calls for extraction but is told to kill Katherine to save the secrets.

This has too many questionable events to be a realistic spy thriller. There are lots of gun fights and action scenes to try to keep the interest. It's a lot of fighting in an underground bunker. It doesn't succeed in creating thrills. The cat-and-mouse game is not that well thought out and not that compelling. It may be necessary to do some minor exposition on what the station does and where that phone connects. This movie has some good actors but it's too bare bones.

This is the remarkable debut into English-language film directing by the Danish noir director Kasper Barfoed. Recently I reviewed his brilliant Danish thriller THE CANDIDATE (KANDIDATEN, 2008, see my review). Now he steps into our language, so watch out! This is a highly atmospheric and ominous thriller mostly set is a bizarre bunker on a disused military base which has been turned into what the security services call a 'numbers station'. That is where short wave is used (since its broadcast location cannot be traced) to broadcast instructions to spies round the world using number codes. The lead actor is John Cusack, who is perfectly cast because he makes a convincing quiet, brooding type. Here we come up against the problem I have mentioned frequently before, however, which is that the main character, with whom we are meant to sympathize, is a professional killer. In this instance, he is a government assassin. But is that any better than being a standard 'hit-man'? In any case, it is an unmistakable sign that our society is in a state of terminal decadence when the heroes of so many movies are men who kill for money. I suppose one could say that of Monsanto, perhaps, but then one could argue that Monsanto is an even worse sign of our terminal decadence, with the accent in their case on 'terminal'. So there he is, John Cusack, quietly guarding the woman who reads out the numbers at the numbers station, when things go seriously awry. Some of 'his side' have sold key information about the numbers station to 'the other side', whoever they are these days. And then vicious men with guns come in and start shooting and wanting the codes, and in fact they want to do terrible things with those codes, such as send false instructions requiring the agents who receive them to kill their own bosses. We are meant to feel sorry for John Cusack because nasty men are trying to kill him, but then who feels sorry for all the people John Cusack has killed? But that's not part of the script. Putting all the moral questions aside (which is what our society does nowadays), this is a very exciting film. So there you are.

I won't try and stretch your credulity by saying this is a must see movie. You could give it a miss and your life will be just the same as if you saw it. However... It really isn't a bad little flick if you can get past the misleading posters, etc. They say "Action Movie" and the reality is that it is a character piece. A definite case of poor marketing.

John Cusack plays a burnt out CIA black ops guy that is assigned to watch over Malin Akerman after screwing up a job. The movie is more about him confronting his demons than about fighting off some nameless terrorist types. He does a decent and believable job.

Malin Akerman's character is somewhat under-developed. Her acting wasn't terrible, I just think the role could have been better written. I just couldn't seem to care all that much about whether she lived through it.

The one really jarring note was the location. It is supposed to be a remote secret base, but they used one of the many former air bases scattered through England as the setting. The thing is none of those bases are all that remote and it is a large complex with bunkers and electric gates and crap like that which kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. They would have done better to set it on an island off Scotland or something.

Over all it was worth seeing but it's better to rent than to buy.