Mini-Review of White Chamber

By Dave B.

White Chamber (2019, currently on Netflix) takes place in a near-future version of the United Kingdom that has declared martial law and is being opposed by a rebel group known as the United Kingdom Liberation Party. The film begins with a woman in a featureless white box undergoing physical and psychological torture for unknown reasons. As the movie progresses we learn that all is not as it seems, and that morality can often be a relative concept. 

In general, I enjoyed what White Chamber attempts to accomplish: namely, it wants to show that one’s moral perception can be contingent upon the information at one’s disposal and the circumstances that one finds oneself in. It’s an important message and White Chamber is philosophically interesting for most of its 89-minute runtime.

Unfortunately, despite some fairly strong performances and an interesting plot, White Chamber’s characters are not very engaging. Most of them are written two-dimensionally, so except for the occasional unexpected graphic violence, it’s hard to generate an emotional reaction to the film. I marginally recommend the film because it held my attention the entire way through and its moderately thought-provoking at times, but it evokes no feelings and this movie didn’t quite achieve its potential.

In Short...
Premise: Good
Execution: Mixed
Rating: 5.5/10