'Murder By Numbers' is a psychological suspense-thriller that tells the story of a tenacious homicide detective, Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock) and her new partner Sam Kennedy (Ben Chaplin) who become pitted against two malevolently brilliant young men (Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt) in an ingenious battle of wits as they try to solve a murder case.
That's the plot in a sentnence. I must say I lifted that off IMDB. You see, there is not much suspense, and there is not much in the way of thrills, in fact there's a lot of stuff, but it all didn't add up to one good movie. This is where a good editor, or somebody with a clear vision could have helped this film.
We start off with a very nice wide shot that pulls in and narrows to a house on a bluf. We tighten all in one shot, which was pretty cool. And we hear a voice, then a second voice and see two people looking at each other each with a gun to their heads. Alright, looks like a good start! A gun shot rings out. Cut to a class room in highscool USA. One, obviously nerdy/broodig type teen is finishing off a report infront of the class, Justin, played by Michael Pitt. Pretty heavy stuff, the sterotypical class is bored and uniterested, and one is sleeping, Richard Haywood, played by Ryan Gosling. Next we get introduced to Sandra Bullock, Cassie the hardnosed cop. She can play these parts well, she's got the lingo, the attitude, and the Krispy Kreme. The crime scene must be kept as clean as possible, kinda tough out in the woods. So she directs Sam, Ben Chaplin, to follow in her footsteps, litterally. We see the techniques she uses and the care, the analysis. Hey this is getting good.
Well, from that point on the film just lost its focus. Is the story about Bullock and how she's going to figure out who dunnit? or is it about these two kids and how they did it? I'm not giving anything away here, cause it's pretty obvious, given away in trailers, blurb lines. So the question is how is she going to pin it on them? The whole plot tends to meander, first the two kids, then back to Bullock, then back, then we see Bullock after work, okay she's an alcoholic, no but she's got a past. She's a tough cop and really a man? No but acts like one.
Then there's the two kids, one obviously very smart, but lacks the guts to act, the other very impulsive, but also smart. Oh and there's a girl involved. Exactly what is their relationship? How did they meet?
There's too much time spent on trying to develop Bullock's character. Sometime less is more. If more time was spent on developing the kids story I think it would have played better. How did they plan it? Why? What steps did they go through, there was obviously a lot of planning put into the act, and to not even consider a prisoner's dillema was just stupid. How about, 'I'm not talking till I see a lawyer?' There's a final confrontation and I swear, does any cop ever wait for backup?
So what we have is a movie that really fails to entertain. I would not recommend you go pay money to see this movie. I'm glad I got free preview passes. For a good crime/forensic entertainment, try CSI or find a rerun of Profiler, or check out an airing of Exhibit A, much more entertaining.
Paul
There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.
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