No one gives world-weary like John Cusack. He wears his ennui with as much panache as his Ramones tees and those fabulous coats. Projects in search of an artist of a certain age – who can shoulder a burden of despair with a wry grin – need look no further than the tip of his quiff for their man.
Emerson Kent is the quintessential Cusack role – conflicted, tormented and ever so slightly beautiful. The field agent has been semi-retired by the agency after developing a conscience during an operation clean up. Too cool for PTSD he instead lets the incident eat him up inside and wearily accepts an assignment in the English countryside babysitting a codebreaker as she sends encrypted shortwave transmissions out into the world. The new assignment is a conspicuous bone tossed at Emerson by his bemused boss (Liam Cunningham), intended to keep him on the payroll but limiting any opportunity for further outbreaks of humanity.
Codebreaker Katherine (Malin Akerman) is tickled by the top secret nature of her work out on a deserted American Airforce base in an unfamiliar land. She is entirely naïve as to the implications of the numbers she sends, seeing only the thrill of using her mathematical prowess for something other than mobile apps and coding video games, she does not perceive the danger. Her stoic new companion Emerson is simply a source of amusement to her. She seeks to provoke and tease him, mocking his sharp shooter’s instincts without considering the reason such a man is by her side.
Emerson and Katherine’s opposites have entered into a discreet relationship. Though Emerson noted their affection towards one another on a shift change he chose not to comment. But returning to the base to relieve them he is conscious that something is off – the gate is open and David and Meredith are nowhere to be seen. Shots are fired, an explosion detonated and suddenly the game has changed for them all. The demands of Emerson’s real mission begin with the whip-crack of the first automatic round and this time he must put emotion inside and properly clean house…
The Numbers Station has a strong set up, nice characterisation and a satisfying conundrum at its core. The eponymous station – a cavernous bunker with sufficient dark spaces and hiding places for a clutch of thrillers – is nice and claustrophobic providing instant atmosphere and tension even before the proverbial hits the fan. Cusack is obviously an old hand with this sort of material but Malin Akerman gives admirable support and is convincing within the limitations of her frightened and injured character.
Though communication with the outside is impossible and visual surveillance has been lost, the duo gain access to the audio files for the past 24 hours and play back excerpts in an attempt to build a picture of the fate that has befallen their colleagues. They have some idea of the bloody outcome after Katherine finds a chunk of David (Bryan Dick) discarded on the floor but trapped and under siege they need every advantage at their disposal so they listen to every single tortuous moment.
We meet the charismatic tormentor of the missing team when the action flashes back to the previous day. In a brutal and unflinching sequence he employs the effective pairing of a salesman’s charm and a torturer’s skill to gain the leverage he needs. The outcome seems inevitable and yet The Numbers Station manages to muster a surprise or two. The final twist is fairly genre-typical (and its dialogue fist-gnawingly trite) but I was pleased at the effectiveness of Emerson’s inscrutability and enjoyed playing along with the will he/won’t he of it all immensely.
I didn’t mind that I had seen John Cusack play variations on this theme a thousand times before but I suspect it will prove an irritant for some. I found his presence a boon and would have found this tense and intense thriller a duller thing without him. The films two major sticking points, however, were hard to shake off. The first: there are two clear and distinct moments during action sequences when Mr. Cusack is verging on doppelganger to a latter day Steven Seagal. I tried to shake the mental image but it stuck hard and fast and the fear it instilled in me for the Cusack of movies yet-to-be was extremely distracting.
The second, and perhaps more pertinent, problem is this: if you are in a broadcast facility whose sole purpose is to send messages to the lethal secret assassins your government has peppered the planet with…WHY DOESN’T IT OCCUR TO YOU TO USE THEM TO GET YOU OUT OF THE BLEEPING NUMBERS STATION???
Minor grievances and horrible flashes forward aside, The Numbers Station is an entertaining and competent thriller. In his feature debut, director Kasper Barfoed keeps the human story elements – of love, loss and regret – low-key but stirring. An early exchange between Emerson and a bartender has a particularly affecting epilogue and the simply sketched relationship between poor doomed Meredith and David was also rendered moving by virtue of strong performances. While perhaps not one to sprint out and buy when it hits DVD, this is nevertheless a jolly good option to download for a Saturday night in.
[Rating:3.5]
The Numbers Station is available on Download and On-Demand from 27th May 2013
