The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 133

The Record September 11, 1998 MOVIES 39 Ever After Is Something Vert Special Indeed." JCKrer bow, NBlMV i Twuu Ahhs THE NEW YORK POST r. 7 "T'OTHUMBSUp!" SISKELSEreKT" Diev Bakktaoke ArimiCA Hjstoii ever after A GlKOEIUU Sion I I EL S0N1THMWS METROPLEX PRtEHCLO TON ftf iTHtS MONMOUTH MALL uwon'cw LOEWS NEW BRUNSWICK tt ft tflXSW" B46-9JO0 CM-iriCCEOH NEWPORT CENTRE CINEMAS PASCACK (MsrwOCXioW-3700 WALTO SUPLEX etc El oa ROUTE 17 TRIPLEX FWMWIS 777ft 58J SEACOURT PAVTUON TOMS KMC yfi3400 TEANECK TEWtCK 81334 CNCFX OttCK WARNER QUAD (XIWOD LOEWS WAYNE mw. WILLIAMS CINEMA ROCKLAND LOEWS PALISADES CENTER W(ST NCK 38-1970 SPRING VALLEY Of WW SALLWOOD CINEMAS CLf'QH 77K9747 BERGEN PLAZA 13 TGNKUEJK. XI bfm ST GFWRAt CMFIM BRfDGEWATER COMMONS 7 72m Mi SONY THEA1RCS CINEMA CENTER 5 ONEMA PLAZA flEMWO 7832777 CINEMA 10 TENFLEX SUCCAS arwrw ckims CINEMA 12 fftSFl 3JS-IM1 a www one mas CINEMA 23 FIVEPLEX CEW GHOtt 8S777 SONY TWJWWS EAST HANOVER mm ieo KENDALL PARK CINEMAS 7 SOUTH SAjNSMCK 477.2444 KIN MAUJCWEMAS 8 IWl LINCOLN CINEMAS B.WGTCH 997873 UNOEN (JCEN 9ZM7S7 tfM. CMFUIS MARLBORO CMEMA IWtaJB 372-8181 CCEOtf MENLO PARK MALL CINEMAS E0SCM 777 aw Nicole deBoer, David Hewlett, and Andrew Miller are among six captives who must solve the mysteries of the cube that imprisons them.

A deadly puzzle NO PASSES HONORED DURING THIS ENGAGEMENT AUDIENCES AND CRITICS AGREE, Prisoners of a cube bmm DiKUi is "uit of ihjs mi MOVIES OF THE YEAR." -Paul Clinton, CNN 4 MOVIE REVIEW CUBE: Directed by Vincenza Natali. Written by Natali, Andre Bijelic, and Graeme Manson. Photographed by Derek Rogers. Edited by John Sanders. Music by Mark Korven.

With Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson, and Maurice Dean Wint R. 92 minutes. Opens in Manhattan at various theaters, including the Theaters, 84th and Broadway. 'A surprise delight A movie with a bis heart id a whole new sense of heroism," an -David Sbcdun, CBS-TV "Superbly acted, beautifully directed, a -Mart S. Allen, KMAX-TV (UPN) "A very special film.

It will touch you for a long tune." -Jeffrey Lyon, wvbc-tv "Curiously entrancing, an unexpected treat" Richard Sdikkel liwt "Inspired and intensely moTing. 'Simon Eirch' is one of the year's best transformation from strong leader to crippled follower. But the real star of this show is Natali, the former story-board artist who, at 28, has demonstrated an amazing range of filmmaking skills. Natali maintains suspense without resorting to any cheap tricks or outlandish special effects. (At a budget of $350,000 in Canadian dollars, he couldn't afford them.) Adding to the suspense is the fact that there is a way out of this madness: Whoever has designed the cube has also left enough clues both in the structure and in the selection of this "team" of players to supply an opportunity for escape.

The film trips in a few places. We can, for example, buy the presence of a mathematician in this group; but the presence of an idiot savant, who just happens to have a talent for figuring out prime numbers of nine-digit figures, is a bit much. Then too, the ending is somewhat unmsatisfying, as Natali seems to have gone out of his way to fool his audience. These are minor points, however, when one looks at the overall achievement. Natali, in his first feature, has turned in a great piece of filmmaking.

By LAURENCE CHOLLET Staff Writer A man wakes up inside a cube-like cell. There are six doors, one on each surface of the cube. Each door leads to another cube, and that cube can mean either freedom or death. That's the intriguing premise of a riveting film written and directed by Canada's Vicenzo NatalL It features an ensemble of Canadian actors who are unknowns in this country: Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, Wayne Robson, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, and Maurice Dean Wint. Virtually all of the action takes place inside a prison maze of connected, cube-like cells.

The six prisoners, all pulled from their everyday lives, are thrown together in the cube and must find a way out before they starve to death. Not since Alfred Hitchcock's "lifeboat," has a director gotten so much out of a single location. The six characters are well-chosen: there's Quentin (Wint), a racist policeman; Leaven (De Boer), a spoiled mathematics student; Holloway (Guadagni), a free-clinic doctor; Worth (Hewlett), an engineer with a dark secret; Rennes (Robson), a legendary prison escape and Kazan (Miller), an idiot savant. Each contributes something to breaking the secret of the cube. As the journey wears on and the confusion mounts, mistakes lead to death and the characters take on new personalities.

De Boer, as the young mathematician Leaven, is given the unwieldy task of explaining the various mathematical conundrums of the cube. But she does it very well and manages to make each articulation of dry mathematics a revelation. Wint, as the racist cop Quentin, undergoes a STARTS TODAY BRIDGE WAT feH CtfVfW CWfMAS SUCCASUNNA CINEMA M) SUCCA5UNNA KCK ON? MAS TOWN CENTER PLAZA CA5I WWOSGt J7 1472 Of fvrw cinfmas WAYNE PREAKNESS ONE MAS 494)34 fuda TtteGMarhUi CHEAT W0HKGUTS JUST FOB WOMEN! 77 only heavy breathing it your. HSXWAitr ZS-I 161 OlATVW CMMAS CLA1RI0GE CINEMAS MOfTCLA 76-554 sow rnem EAST HANOVER 515.1300 CMMAJ EWRSONOUAO EMfSON26l IOOO GENteAlCWfMA ESSEX GREEK WEST QANG( 73! JT55 SOW TWfATtf FREEHOLD METROPLEX KrCX0 208St NTKDNAl M'5f MfNTS ATI. FT MULTIPLEX CINEMAS HT 35 3M420O CINEWX OCX ON MENLO PARK MALL CINEMAS EDtSON T77HM WW SOW THf T(f MONMOUTH MALL AIONTOWN MONTGOMERY CVKMAS LOEWS NEW BRUNSWICK NfW CtJNSWC SWA It CtEfVtW CMWS PAhSIPPANY ONEMA 12 PUSPPAhrr 335-4141 LOEWS PLAZA THEATRE SICAUCU5 902-9200 RIALTO TRIPLEX LOEWS MOGEBEL PARK BOGfFCtD fABC 440461 CWlEI OMON ROUTE4TENPlX pJUtAMU5 777fM5t3 SOMTVTtE5 SEACOURT PAVKJOM TOMS IfVH SOS-J400 14 Qjjr lmpftoi Cnmk T9 vr to 60 OFFcm.

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