Codice fantasma

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.

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.

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 saw that this movie only scored 5.4 on IMDb and I wanted to quickly write that it's a whole lot better than that. The movie kept me interested from start to finish. It doesn't slow down appreciably at any point. There isn't an overwhelming amount of action but there is a tense atmosphere throughout. The location is also great. A moody, grey numbers station right out in the middle of nowhere. But the main reason for watching this movie is Cusack who perfectly plays the loner, haunted, tough guy, with a conscience. He's supremely watchable in every frame. In fact, Cusack plays these types of characters better than anything else. He has that suitably detached, dangerous look, down to a tee. He also does ambiguity very well. All of this is displayed really well in the movie. Ackerman is also well cast as the enthusiastic, smart code girl.

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.