They
are the Fab Four of crazy-large number mathematics and theoretical physics. If
anyone has the collective brain power to save the world, it would be these
four. The problem is, they do not know what the question is, or even have any
inkling of the nature of the wider crisis. All they know is that they are
locked up together and they are not getting out until they figure out what is
going on in
screenwriter-director-producer-cinematographer-co-editor-visual-effects-guy Björn
Engström’s Tangent Room, which
releases today on VOD.
As
preeminent scientists, all four eggheads have corresponded with Dr. Wahlstein,
but only Sandra Brandt knew him personally. Alas, the other three missed their
chance, because the eccentric scientist is now dead, as he himself explains in
his introductory video. For some reason, he has brought them together in this
grubby conference room, locking them in and cutting them off from the outside
world. They will have to figure out the why on their own, but it somehow
involves the string of large numbers he rattles off.
To
explain the problem they are supposed to solve would be telling, but we will
give one hint. Tangent cover similar
thematic ground as James Ward Byrkit’s Coherence
(still one of the best science fiction films of the last ten years), but it
comes at it from a radically different direction. Of course, Tangent was not wholly improvised, as
was the case with Coherence, but it
is a Swedish production, filmed entirely in English. Lisa Bearpark is actually
Swedish-American and Vee Vimolmal is Thai-Swedish, based in London, but it is
still impressively smooth, for a multi-lingual, multi-national effort.
All
four do a nice job with their respective characters’ tics and foibles, but
Vimolmal probably makes the strongest impression, because Wantana initially
appears to be the most socially awkward of the quartet, which is quite a feat
in itself. Yet, she arguably emerges as the most human.
Although
Engström is credited for the film’s digital effects, there is very little
visual wizardry in Tangent, to speak
of. Yet, that is our favorite brand of science fiction—the kind that relies on
ideas rather spectacle and bombast. Frankly, you could probably stage Engström’s
screenplay as a theater play, if you added the judicious use of strobe lights,
or some such disruptor.
It
runs a mere sixty-five minutes, but Tangent
is at least as smart as Coherence,
Frequencies, Le Cyclotron, and other standout indie science fiction films
of the current decade, if not brainier. It also functions quite effectively as
a confined space thriller, albeit one that is unusually conversant in cerebral
topics, like the Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC). Highly recommended, Tangent Room releases today on VOD
platforms.
