Film Review - Sphere

Sphere is a gruelling film to watch. It's about a man called Elderforce trying to make a sphere with only a wooden block and a penknife.

Elderforce is played with aplomb by William H Macy. You're with him every step of the way. Mostly things go badly for Elderforce and Macy's hangdog expression conveys this in an endearing way.

Elderforce takes a lump off the wooden block. He takes too much. It's not round. He takes a bit off the other side, to even things up. The block looks vaguely spherical, but flattened. He takes off bits from the top and the bottom. It's too square. He rounds it and it looks good. But then Elderforce turns it 90 degrees and it's all out of proportion.

Will he ever get that block into a spherical shape? How small will the block be by the time he manages it?