Murder By Numbers (2002)

Average rating

(63%)

Starring:	Sandra Bullock \| Michael Pitt \| Ryan Gosling \| Agnes Bruckner
Director:	Barbet Schroeder
Studio:	WARNER HOME VIDEO
Run time:	115 mins
Genres:	Drama
Languages:	English
Subtitles:	Arabic, English
Released:	January 20, 2003
Also available on:

When the dead body of a woman is found in the woods near the river, feisty homicide detective Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock) and her new partner, Sam Kennedy (Ben Chaplin) are assigned to the case. That's the premise for MURDER BY NUMBERS, a psychological thriller directed by Barbet Schroeder (REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE). Determined to solve the crime, Mayweather follows her hunches and microscopic bits of evidence, focusing her investigation on two teens: Justin Pendleton (Michael Pitt), a brilliant, misunderstood nerd, and Richard Haywood (Ryan Gosling), a smooth talking, spoiled rich kid. From the beginning, the audience knows that this unlikely duo has formed a secret bond that pushes the boundaries of morality and the law in their attempt to commit the perfect murder and experience complete freedom. It's up to Mayweather, who buries herself in her work in an attempt to forget her own tormented past, and Kennedy, a transfer from Vice who is working his first homicide case, to ignore the stereotypical profiles and see past the obvious in order to solve the crime. Slowly but surely, the truth comes out as Mayweather works on instinct while battling her own demons and being drawn into the boys' game of cat-and-mouse.

Rating of 2 stars out of 5

Alfred Hitchcock explored the theme of murder as an intellectual exercise in Rope as did Richard Fleischer in Compulsion, but this attempt at the same is just plain ropey. Here, Michael Pitt and The Believer's Ryan Gosling play bored teenagers who kill a defenceless woman simply to get away with it. Of course, their mistake is to underestimate unconventional homicide detective Sandra Bullock who smells a rat and confronts a few skeletons in her own cupboard to come after them. Bullock plays the maverick detective rather well, but there's little else to get excited about in this dull and predictable thriller.

Highest rated reviews

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Breaking the mould?

Lisa from Plymouth, England, 2nd February, 2004

This film was a bit slow-going to begin with and I found it hard to get into, mainly because it was difficult to accept Sandra Bullock as a homicide detective with demons (she has created such a name for herself playing the same sort of characters). Ben Chaplin also seemed a bit out of place as her partner. However, eventually the film developed into a nice little thriller - it didn't offer anything extraordinary but there were the usual twists and turns you would expect. It was great to see Sandra Bullock trying to break out of her romantic comedy mould again.

Read all highest rated reviews

4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Scott#11 from SMETHWICK, 4th March, 2004

Murder by numbers sees Sandra Bullock take on the role of Cassie Mayweather a detective out to solve the murder of a young girl killed by a couple of high school kids who come up with a plan to see if they can commit the perfect murder. When I heard of this film I was really looking forward to seeing it as it's basically a remake of the classic Rope but it was such a let down I had a hard time making my mind up if it should get a bad or reasonable rating. In my opinion it's just a poor imitation of a great film the film moves at such a slow pace that you lose interest and towards the end you don?t really care if she solves it or not you just want the film to end. A film to avoid if you ask me.

Read all highest rated reviews