Those who harbour the suspicion that sales reps are really automatons planted on this earth by evil forces get their confirmation here.

A practically unrecognisable Jeremy Northam plays the jobless number-cruncher recruited into the sales ranks of Digicorp, a Microsoft-style mega-company.

Now, a lot of people may have their theories about Bill Gates...but they aren't likely to extend to brainwashing would-be spies for nefarious purposes.

Northam's character Morgan Sullivan is told he will be attending trade conventions in non-descript hotels across America urban backwaters.

However, he isn't required to master the intricacies of an overhead projector - he's just got to record the conference speeches on a rather natty fountain pen.

He's also going by the name of Jack Thursby and he suddenly discovers a taste for single malt whiskies and branded cigarettes.

Natali, who directed the cult hit Cube, keeps a tight grip on narrative and paints a monochrome picture of a world not a million miles from Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Things step up a claustrophobic notch when Sullivan learns, after a bar-room encounter with the mysterious Rita (Liu), that he has been done up like a box of microchips.

Rather than carrying out clandestine assignments for Digicorp, the company has actually been brainwashing him for its own dodgy reasons.

Less gorily brutal than Cube, this is a cinematic mindgame in the poker rather than the Happy Families league.

Sometimes difficult to follow and coldly clinical, it is, nonetheless, a rivetting journey into the dark side that isn't frightened to ask a little more of the viewer than is normal.

It all eventually slots into place - sort of - but don't think of nipping out half way through - when you come back you might as well be watching a different film.

Tim Evans