Based on a novel by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later), The Tesseract is a feverish, hyper-stylized, non-linear story (more of a meta-story, perhaps) that transpires over a couple of days in which four strangers, all staying at a Bangkok hotel called the Heaven, unknowingly await a fate that will bind them forever. Sean (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), a British drug runner, has found himself on the wrong side of a local gang. Rosa (Saskia Reeves), a British psychologist, deals with the death of her young son by videotaping Cambodian children discussing their dreams. A female assassin (Lene Christensen) lies bleeding from a gunshot wound in one of Heaven's drearier rooms, while Wit (Alexander Rendel), an apparently orphaned young thief/bellhop, serves as the link between the three adults. While The Tesseract sports plenty of graphic violence, the film's action is actually quite slow--a phone call here, a bandage applied there--but what maintains the viewer's interest is the way director Oxide Pang Chun (Bangkok Dangerous) loops scenes back onto themselves, dissecting the action through different perspectives. Recommended. (T. Keogh)
The Tesseract
Sundance, 96 min., R, VHS: $79.88, DVD: $26.99, Oct. 26 Volume 19, Issue 6
The Tesseract
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