Review of Murder by Numbers (2002) by Andy C — 19 Mar 2012

For a film that bills itself as "the execution of a perfect murder," Murder by Numbers doesn't seem too keen on offering much development behind the execution. In fact, it doesn't even see fit to study its characters, which wouldn't be too much of an issue had the characters not been perfect candidates for character study or, and this is the true killer of the story, the film hadn't been such a derivative, simplistic bore of a thriller.

When high-schoolers Richard Haywood (Ryan Gosling) and Justin Pendleton (Michael Pitt) seem to pull off the perfect murder, homicide detective Cassie Mayweather is put on the case of the woman they murdered, who apparently has enough obvious evidence around her to put away a man that is not Richard nor Justin. Yet, Cassie, battling personal turmoil and the opposition from her partner and superiors, still suspects the murder's true masterminds as the culprits.

The story of the rogue, rebel cop who's not quite convinced on what the evidence seems to point to is one the cinema world has seen a billion times. There's good enough reason for it; it's interesting and building climax from such stories is usually bar-none. The problem with Murder By Numbers isn't what it is, but how it chooses to go about being what it is. The object of a thriller is to produce fascinating characters with clear, explained motives while at the same time fulfilling the explicit that comes with the genre: producing thrills. Murder By Numbers has the formula, but the answer is all wrong.

The film's lack of clarity when writing its characters is the first and most devastating error. By nature, high schoolers are fascinating subject material. Their emotions can change with the wind, their deceitful, cunning, unpredictable and not to be taken for granted. But when murder is mixed into the pot? The characters become even more special: a walking-talking oxymoron. A child, the emblem for innocence turned psychopath - one who's actions NEED to be understood. Being interesting isn't a problem for the film's young killers, it's how poorly developed they are where issues deride. It's almost as if writer Tony Gayton didn't know his own characters. They have limited reasoning, which is seemingly meaningless. They're involvement with one another is apparently a matter of no importance. The murder is a random act, that's understood, but everything is motivated by something. Instead of taking advantage of these unique characters, Gayton and director Barbet Schroeder force-feed the audience motives that are nothing more than unoriginal personal background factoids. Bullock's Cassie at least receives the decency of an explanation to why she is like she is. Problem is, she pales in comparison to the killers on a level of interest.

As little justice as the brains of Murder by Numbers did to its characters, the film as a whole would still have been moderately enjoyable if it even took on some semblance of a thriller. The thrills themselves are bound to clear moments of tension and the structure is so linear that it had to have been plucked out of the thriller genre's "How-To" book. Many of the most suspenseful scenes feature the characters watching over each other ominously, utterly forced together for no reason other than to breathe some life into an otherwise boring narrative. By the time the film reaches its climax, the life has been sucked from the audience. It matters not that film successfully created an adequate climax as it followed an hour and forty minutes of nothingness.

Though faults are spread around for this disappointing and unutilized material, none of them can be aimed at the cast. Bullock is just doing the ropes. Her almost bipolar performance fully supports not just the character's past, but future development. Her ability to be a forceful screen presence allows full immersion into the character. In an early roles for each, Gosling and Pitt are pitted together in somewhat of an odd coupling, one further embellished by the aura of the nature of the characters given off by the respective actors. The duo were done in by the vague script, not just as individual actors, but as a unit that deserved more attention.

Just like the murder committed in the film, Murder by Numbers is far from perfect in its execution. With the proper players, genre and foundation, the filmmakers fumbled what could have been a sure touchdown and instead wound up with just another forgettable crime movie.