The Numbers Station

"The Numbers Station" is another one of those quiet movies with an uninteresting title that wallow in obscurity, undeservedly.

"The Numbers Station" refers to a remote un-mapped location where secret encoders broadcast missions in highly secret numeric ciphers. After a flubbed mission and a severe attack of conscience, hit man Emerson (John Cusack) gets reassigned to provide security to Katherine (Malin Ackerman), one such code broadcaster. One day, their base gets compromised and Emerson and Katherine to promptly contain the problem before the false codes achieve their misguided missions.

John Cusack plays the cool-as-nails but conscience-stricken Emerson very well, both in the action scenes and the quiet scenes. His character is the heart of the film and he carried the role with dignity. Malin Ackerson did well as the traditional damsel in distress, but to her credit, her character did not just sit there waiting for things to happen.

I liked the tight and exciting pace of the story told within the limited confines of the numbers station. The emotional story within the heart of a supposedly unemotional killer was also well-told. This suspenseful and thoughtful film is recommended for viewers who like a neat claustrophobic thriller.

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.

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.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by The Numbers Station. Going on John Cusack's recent venture into silly, inconsequential direct to video thrillers without depth or heft, I expected a mind numbing cash grab with his moniker shamelessly plastered in pre title billing. I only watched it for a couple of actors I really enjoy, and what I got was thoroughly fun, slow burning spy thriller that took its time, built the characters and focused on mood and story instead of just action filler. During and after the Cold War, Numerous 'Numbers Stations' were planted all over Europe, facilities where operatives would reside, broadcasting codes in the form of random sequences of digits, all over the region to various agents, who would read them, and carry out the orders embedded within. Cusack's plays a disgraced agent who is assigned to accompany a coder (Malin Ackerman) to a remote station, and protect her and the premises. They arrive and are immediately at odds with each other. Ackerman is a rookie spook with idealistic values and a sunshiny demeanour that irks Cusack right off the bat. He has acres of tragedy behind him, curdling his personality into a jaded, hangdog presence, essentially just wearily carrying out the motions with listless resignation. The script wisely gives them time to bicker about their differences, learn a bit about each other and form a shaky bond before the inevitable conflict rears its head, in the form of a rogue special ops unit led by a determined psychopath (Richard Brake). Their aim is to hijack the numbers stations broadcasting capabilities and send out codes of their own containing orders to do God knows what. It's up to Cusack to prevent this, giving him new purpose. The underrated Liam Cunningham briefly shows up as Cusack's morally bankrupt partner who ends up having a crisis of conscience, and portrays it really well as only Cunnningham can do. It's not a movie to rave about, but it's a solid, moody thriller for lovers of the genre, perfect for a lazy rainy night.

i enjoyed it!

the story was pretty well told. the background of John Cusack's character was well revealed, so we can better understand his motives and feelings during the unfolding action, the female character was somewhat underdeveloped i think, not that it impacts the story much, but we could have gotten some flashbacks on how she ended up in the station as well, not only in words - but thats all minor mumblings

although it may seem to some as a 'B' rated movie - it is a much, much better than that, you can easily tell that much effort has been put in this movie by a serious team

7/10