The 7th Dimension

The 7th Dimension is a terrific hoot at times. Shame it never wanted to be.

Full marks for the no-holds-barred ambition that tries to cram a high concept (or three) into the low budget setup. Considerably less for the inevitable muddle, though.

Zoe (Lucy Evans) has a crush on her tutor Malcolm (David Morton) and persuades her student friend Sarah (Kelly Adams, Bronson) to accompany her to his low-rent penthouse flat. They find that Malcolm lives with frosty Kendra (Calita Rainford), wheelchair-using pirate radio jock Declan (Jonathan Rhodes) and rows of computers and banks of monitors.

It turns out that the trio are Beacon 77, super-IT geniuses trying to hack into the Vatican’s mainframe and access the ‘real’ Torah. Once in, they can crack the legendary Bible Code, unravelling words and phrases that will reveal the prophecies of mankind. The codes to life, everything and everyone mapped, in the past and future, laid out in the texts not just in three dimensions, but in four, five or… yada yada.

More than fate would have it that they start cracking the night Kelly and Lucy drop in. It’s a close global cyber run-off against the Vatican controls, though. Then the flat goes into lockdown, the Pentagon starts crashing their systems, mysterious psychic forces appear, telepaths come a-knocking on heads and super-brain Declan has a few more ideas.

The girls’ seriously graceless start in no way prepares you for this leftfield cyber-conspiracy. To help out Rhodes’ frenetic Declan constantly ladles in double-quick exposition mixed with caustic disdain for anyone who might stop to question it. His is a fun malevolent turn, but it doesn’t mitigate the white rapids of twaddle.

While the information overload keeps the plot moving along, the character development needed to balance it out only comes in deeply unsatisfying spasmodic bursts of yet more exposition. Adams’ Sarah is perhaps the most rounded and she does her best with the dialogue. Evans suffers from having such stultifying shifts in character direction that it’s painful to bear.

Such contriving is a symptom of the whole film, which regularly bumps with uneven changes in tone and style. Director Brad Watson clearly has a talent for framing, though, and makes effective use of the confines, both in the flat and his budget.

7th Dimension’s trying to hold both ends of a large scale at the same time. One hand is trading on murky Da Vinci Code suspicion and complicity whilst the other is clacking at keyboards with the intent and verve of Pi. It’s never going to work yet it can be fun at times, as you wonder how far round the loop it’ll actually take itself. Perhaps if that humourous spirit were more intentional it would alleviate some of the flaws, but it still wouldn’t account for the essential lack of coherence, tension and thrills.