Codice fantasma

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.

"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.

well, guys who gave low scores for this movie better getting off their high horses and at least having some solid feelings where they stood. this movie actually is quite watchable and i wouldn't mind telling you that i'm one of the arrogant, cynical, and hair-splitting picky guys who never had patience to any and all kinda bad movies, yet this one surprisingly surpassed my expectation. john cusack looked quite old in this film, his hairs looked quite stiff and unnatural due to so much hair dye was used that had made his hairs looked so disgusting. his facial features also looked quite messy.....but he did a great job here and malin akeman also performed so well. the screenplay was well crafted and the "panic room" replaced by some military bunker was also not bad at all. this film looked quite low budget but never gave you a B movie feeling and it's quite smart to have limited money well spent and turned a film into a quite watchable suspenseful one. if you by any chance want to watch a film without being foolish and make your money worthwhile, then watch this one, at least it won't let you down too much.

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.