White Chamber starts in the same way a million sci fi stories start: some character wakes up in a, well, white chamber and has to figure out why they're there.
What follows is a convoluted, and confusing, plot about...something. There's a civil war going on - not quite sure why (if it was explained I didn't get it) - and there's a lab developing some drug to aid in battle. I've heard some people mention that this is a metaphor for Brexit. If that was the intention, I don't see it.
Plot points emerge without warning: there's little in the way of set up and pay off and the story is not all that compelling. It's not without its moments - there are nuggets of ideas wanting to be explored, but there's little development of the central themes.
The most egregious problem the film has is that it's boring. Everything about it is boring. The film features two sets: the eponymous white chamber, which is a bright white cube, and the lab its situated in, which is an office building that looks like any office building in the UK. There has been basically zero effort to dress up the set to add any visual interest to it - it's just dull. They've taken an office block, stuck a white cube in it and a single desk with a computer and lab equipment on it and called it a day.
The cinematography is cold and flat - grey looking. It's got the look of a Scandinavian crime drama, but with none of the sophistication It means you've got a dull office block filmed with the most depressing colour palette possible, which is coupled with bare bones camera work.
The music is...non-existent. There are some generic sci fi atmospheric sounds here and there, but that's it...oh, except for an electric guitar track that appears out of nowhere towards the end. It doesn't fit.
The action does that annoying thing films often do where it cuts away every time something happens. Someone throws a punch? Suddenly the recipient of it is on the floor - you never seen the punch. I'm not after a Mad Max film here, but some attempt at choreography would have been appreciated.
The script does that thing that annoys me even more - characters telling each other what they already know, 'As you know, protocol states...' Plus there's the new starter who turns up who apparently has no experience and no idea what the organisation does or how they do it, and characters that are arbitrarily austere. It's frustrating.
The four stars here are earnt for some decent performances - Oded Fehr is a charismatic actor (though often sounds like he's the voice actor for a mid-budget video game) who makes for compelling watching. Nicholas Farrell adds a sort of quiet dignity to the film while Amrita Acharia (whom I recognised as Irri from Game of Thrones) is pretty decent. There are some great make-up effects and some of the props are suitably grotesque.
I do appreciate that this is a low-budget independent sci-fi film, but low-budget doesn't have to mean bad: Moon was low-budget, and is rightly considered one of the best sci-fi films out there.
If you're looking for a Netflix film to watch this evening, White Chamber is not recommended. Try Other Life instead, or maybe Cube or Circle.
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