Sandra Bullock in Murder by Numbers.

Murder of Numbers had a lot of promise, but it only 'nearly' delivers.

Neil Heath

Usually we see Sandra Bullock in slushy romances that most of us avoid like a Roberto Carlos freekick.

However, in Murder by Numbers, she's a hard nosed detective with a dark past.

Plot
Sandra Bullock plays homicide detective Cassie Mayweather, who's investigating the murder of a young woman.

With the help of fellow detective (Chaplin) the trail leads them to Richard Haywood (Gosling) and Justin Pendleton (Pitt), two intellectual high school students - from the beginning we know these two are the murderers.

The pair manage to frame a school janitor (Chris Penn) for the crime, which has the FBI convinced - case closed.

I can't seem to find the prawn crackers!

However, Cassie is not convinced, so against everyone's better judgement, she sets out to prove her own theories.

Cassie also has her own scars, emotional and physical when she survived an attempted murder by her ex-husband.

Review
In 1924 students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, abducted and murdered a 14-year-old boy for a thrill.

Those events inspired this film, as it did for Hitchcock's 'The Rope'.

The premise seems great at first, it's absorbingand it makes the old grey matter do some work.

It also doesn't have a straight narrative, it's very fragmented, which is great because you find yourself piecing it together like an elaborate mind jigsaw.

But then it gets a little slow and tiresome, particularly concerning Bullock and Chaplin's unlikely relationship - which doesn't seem important at all to the film.

Also, if the two murderers are so clever, and have planned every eventuality, then why do they act so suspiciously and leave a patch of vomit at the crime scene?

The ending is also a little overblown, it's not believable and it's morally over the top e.g. 'you-only-get-one-chance-at-life-blah-blah-blah'.

However, it's worth a look, it's probably the best film in its genre around at the moment and so deserves a viewing.