The Numbers Station is about a special agent, played by John Cusack, reassessing his life choices and protecting a civilian assigned to the titular location. There are early random appearances by two Game of Thrones’ characters, Ser Davos and Gilly. There are two major sources of tension in the film: will Cusack’s character kill on command and what happened before characters arrived at a location.
The real star of The Numbers Station is the location. The siege mentality and navigating the logistics of the technology and spy procedures provided the real momentum. Basically fast-forwarding to Cusack arriving at work with the civilian would have made it a mediocre, but tighter movie, but it is a dull standard action drama. The only tension lies in discerning audio clues and flashbacks, which means that the movie gets interesting when we’re not with the main characters. I’m not a mystery person so when solving a crime is what gets me invested in a movie, the writing is flat.
The Numbers Station would actually have been better if the writers just made them strait-laced professionals instead of hastily flawed people. The main characters are fairly two-dimensional with little to no character development. The civilian, played by Malin Akerman, whose career seems to have permanently stalled after Watchmen, annoyed me. You’re at work. Stop messing with the big, taciturn guy.
I’m not sure when we decided that Cusack as a killer was no longer comically incongruous, but typecasting and expected. I would like to return to pre Grosse Pointe Blank days please and thank you. The Numbers Station ended up in my queue a long time ago when I believed that Cusack automatically meant awesomeness. Since then, I saw Banshee Chapter so the title has completely different connotations, and I adored that movie so Cusack’s film could never live up to my expectations on its best day, especially since they belong in completely different genres.
Unless you absolutely must see every movie of anyone in the cast, it is not worth your time. Skip The Numbers Station.