Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

The Numbers Station Blu-ray Movie Review

By the Numbers, and a Bit More

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 24, 2013

The inner struggle of a bodyguard who has been ordered to assassinate his charge in extreme circumstances was the moral dilemma at the heart of John Woo's Windtalkers, or at least it was supposed to be. Viewers of that film could be forgiven for not remembering that the film was even about a secret code, because Woo got so caught up in battle scenes and pyrotechnics that his hero's crisis of conscience disappeared beneath the rubble. That doesn't happen in The Numbers Station, where a similar decision confronts a covert operative—only here the killer and his potential victim are alone, trapped in an isolated facility that isn't supposed to exist. In such close quarters, besiged by mysterious attackers, there is little to distract either the operative or the audience from the choice he has to make. And just for good measure, his attackers remind him of it periodically.

The Numbers Station was an independent production overseen primarily by Furst Films, which brought us Daybreakers and The Matador, among other offbeat fare. Initially available through iTunes, it received a limited U.S. theatrical release in April 2013 and is now being released to DVD and Blu-ray by Image Entertainment.

Opening text screens explain the phenomenon of "numbers stations", short-wave radio broadcasts of apparently random numbers that ham radio operators began reporting shortly after World War II. The phenomenon has provided material for a variety of conspiracy theorists and storytellers. For example, the sci-fi series Fringe based an episode on numbers stations in season 3. The most popular explanation is that the stations are used by covert agencies to transmit instructions to agents in the field. That is the explanation adopted here.

Emerson Kent (John Cusack) is a field agent who, for many years now, has been doing what is generally referred to as "wet" work. On one particular evening, his boss, Michael Grey (the reliable Irish actor, Liam Cunningham), accompanies Emerson on a delicate job that involves the clean-up of an internal matter. Problems arise, however, that lead Grey to conclude he can no longer count on Emerson in the field. After a psych eval, Emerson is reassigned to guard duty in a remote numbers station operating out of an abandoned military base in Suffolk, England.

At the base, Emerson is paired with a cryptologist, Katherine (Malin Akerman), who is the cheerful opposite to Emerson's morose professionalism. She still thinks she's serving her country, while Emerson long ago lost any illusions. Together, they work a three-day shift inside the heavily fortified station. Katherine transmits coded messages in strings of numbers, the contents of which she does not know, using numerical keys that change daily. Emerson, who used to be on the receiving end of such messages, picks up Katherine at the train station, monitors the facility for any sign of security breaches, then returns her to the train when the relief team, Meredith and David (Lucy Griffiths and Bryan Dick), arrives for the next three-day shift. What Katherine does not know, as she seeks to cultivate a friendship with her bodyguard, is that Emerson has orders to kill her immediately if there is any risk that her knowledge of the code may fall into enemy hands. His assignment, above all, is to protect the code.

This arrangement becomes more than theory when Emerson and Katherine arrive for a shift to find the facility breached, Meredith and David missing and themselves under fire. Barely making it inside the station, the pair discover that they are not alone. Soon they're in a fire fight with an unknown assailant, and Emerson has to discover what the attackers want, what they've already done and whether Emerson's "doomsday" order applies.

Because most of the action of The Numbers Station is confined to the bunker-like facility, Emerson and Katherine keep coming back to the same few locations, but Danish director Kasper Barfoed, shooting his first feature in English, makes an advantage of the limitation by letting it add visual emphasis to the pair's lack of options. As they gradually unravel what happened during their absence, it becomes clear that no one else knows that their security has been comrpomised, and no one else can possibly stop whatever the attackers are attempting to do. (The plot, once it is revealed, turns out to be refreshingly modest in its construction, with none of the wheels-within-wheels creations that serial television drama has led many viewers to expect.)

Cusack and Akerman display an interesting chemistry. Although Cusack can emote when a role requires it, here he is tightly closed off, so that even when you're certain that something must be happening inside him, it doesn't show. The viewer projects it onto his face, which means the audience is in a similar position to Katherine. She's spent months trying to understand this man who has been placed in charge of her life (even more than she knows) and has gotten no further than noting minor changes of expression that she can't understand. (At one point, she accuses Emerson of squinting at someone like he's aiming a gun, and he feigns ignorance. But she's not entirely wrong.)

When the mayhem begins, Katherine has no more time to get to know Emerson. She has to rely on instinct, which tells her she cannot fully trust him. Ironically, though, it's the very attack on the station that gives Emerson pause about his orders to "protect the code". The attackers had a purpose, and it certainly wasn't to destroy the station. They wanted to use it somehow, and only Katherine has the knowledge to figure out what was behind the attack and how to undo whatever damage has been done. No longer protector and protectee, the pair must now work as partners.

All of these choices happen in a fast-paced atmosphere of chaos and destruction. The leader of the assault team, Max (Richard Brake), is seen only in flashback, as Emerson and Katherine try to reconstruct events from audio recordings, and he's a cool psychopath who clearly considers tormenting people to be a fringe benefit of hiring himself out as a mercenary. He may even be what Emerson was on his way to becoming, if he hadn't cracked and been exiled to his current post.

The Numbers Station Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Numbers Station was shot with the Arri Alexa by Icelandic cinematographer Óttar Guðnason (Love, Wedding, Marriage), and Image's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is a nice showcase for the Alexa's ability to combine a film-like texture with digital clarity. Although the image remains clean and noiseless, it always exhibits the kind of tactile density typically associated with film, and this is especially valuable for the many close-ups of John Cusack's haggard, careworn face. (It's a vanity-free performance; when people tell Cusack's character that he looks awful, he really does look awful.) The blacks are deep, and shadow detail is well-delineated, which proves useful in the opening night scenes and also in the darker recesses of the Suffolk facility. Colors are rich, but they are used with restraint. Rather than routinely flood the frame with intense reds, blues or greens, Guðnason uses them sparingly, in patches for emphasis or in alternation as lights flash or the characters move through their environment. It's a subtle approach to composition that looks random, but clearly isn't. The intense colors give the story a heightened sense of reality without overburdening what remains, in essence, a small-scale drama.

The 89-minute film, presumably sourced from digital files, resides comfortably on a BD-25 without noticeable artifacts.

The Numbers Station Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's sound mix, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, is aggressive and powerful, with deep bass extension that can easily overload a subwoofer that isn't up to the task. (Mine barely survived.) Sometimes the mix reflects a state of mind. When Cusack's Emerson walks into a bar on the job that will go badly, he's tense and focused, and the strikes of pool cues hitting the ball at a nearby table reverberate through his head—and the listening room—like a sledgehammer blow. In the Suffolk station, large armored doors clang shut with a deep thump, and subterranean disturbances routinely ripple through the structure, often of uncertain origin. A sudden, deafening explosion is genuinely deafening, and the sounds of gunfire register forcefully.

The quieter moments are just as effective because of the contrast, and the urgently spoken dialogue is always clear and intelligible. The suspenseful score is courtesy of Paul Leonard-Morgan (Dredd and Limitless).

The Numbers Station Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of The Numbers Station (1080p; 1.78:1; 14:26): Somewhat longer and more interesting than your standard EPK, this behind-the-scenes look at the film does not dwell on the fine points of filmmaking, and its analysis of plot and character aren't deep, but listening to Cusack and Ackerman talk about their characters and each other is entertaining. The other major participant is producer Sean Furst, whose enthusiasm is no doubt an invaluable trait in the move industry. WARNING: This featurette is rife with spoilers and should not be viewed in advance of the film.



• Additional Trailers: The film's trailer is not included. At startup, the disc plays trailers (in 1080p) for The Tall Man, Day of the Falcon and The Double. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

The Numbers Station Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ethan Hawke was reportedly the first choice to play Emerson in The Numbers Station, presumably reunited with Furst Films after their earlier collaboration in Daybreakers. Hawke would have made an interesting Emerson, but the end result would have been very different. No matter what he does, Hawke's face always shows something. He doesn't have Cusack's ability to draw a shade over his eyes and go blank. Cusack, who so effectively played a hitman to comic effect in Grosse Point Blank, turned out to be ideal casting for The Numbers Station. He gives the movie a touch of gravitas that elevates it above the genre potboiler it otherwise would have been. Recommended for an evening's entertainment.