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Film poses a blatant intellectual challenge

` ? the Rent' starts off looking suspiciously like a low-budget, overly-dramatised European soap opera.

Cyber-hacker Peter is prompted by circumstances to flee home and disappear to Cologne, armed with only his laptop and handfuls of cash. Attempting at first to live on the run in shady hotels while he finishes a hacking job for a man named Gerry, he is haunted by the image of his former girlfriend, Julie.

Julie's image drives Peter from his hotel room also, and he embarks on a strange journey through the apartments of Cologne, slipping in and out (much to the mystification of the flat owners) via spare keys and a great deal of luck.

Despite first appearances, `? the Rent' is not a low-budget soap opera. The film is a blatant intellectual challenge with enough fodder to keep a film class entertained for at least several lectures.

Unfortunately there are times when the film appears to be trying too hard for an artistic effect. Sudden, and rather jolting, silences in the music can be a very effective tool when used properly; in ? the Rent they often seem a little bit off, as though the directors had hit slightly to the left of where they were aiming at.

In other scenes it is as though not enough effort was put in. For example, in a battle of literature which ensures between Peter and the girl the majority of the book titles and quotations they use are not translated from the original German, leaving an English-speaking audience in the strange position of being able to watch their relationship - central to Peter's ability to rejoin the world - develop without understanding it fully.

The afore-mentioned over-dramatising also factors in to this idea of "trying too hard": for example the dazed, half-crazed look Peter wears on his face for much of the beginning of the film is fitting - until it starts to wear on your nerves.

Less is more. Trying too hard to be artistic, the art of the film suffers (although only slightly) as a result.

However, watching Peter's relationships with the different inhabitants of each apartment development is fascinating. Peter connects with three tenants in particular: a writer with whom he discuses plot and motivation as well as intellectualism in art, a maintenance man who he feeds and plays chess with, and the obsessive-compulsive girl who becomes his own obsession (and who ensured this writer will forever feel a stab of doubt every time she sits down in a hydraulic chair).

(Peter also strikes up a relationship with a caf?-owning cowboy who at times bears a startling resemblance to US president George W. Bush.)

Each of the characters need Peter as much as he needs them, and watching their relationships develop and emerge from a shadowy half-world into something as normal as bringing the groceries home after a long day certainly keeps viewers interested.

The suspicion that this is nothing more than low-budget over-dramatising is completely dispelled by the end of the film.

The concept of the "shadow tenant" and each character's triumph over their own personal demons are enough to make ? the Rent well worth watching.

My only word of caution: be prepared, because you might seriously find yourself thinking about replacing your hydraulic chair at the office after this movie.