Review of Murder by Numbers (2002) by Kenneth L — 23 Aug 2009

The film certainly lifts up to its inauspicious title. Murder by Numbers is definitely a by-the-numbers thriller that holds few surprises, not too much suspense and is just lean enough to hold all the relevant information that takes the viewer from 1-10 in its tidy 2 hour run-time. There is nothing superfluous in Murder by Numbers, bearing testament to the sleek efficiency by which a Hollywood potboiler can be ordered up like a take-out menu.

But to disparage the film simply because of its formulaic screenplay would not be giving its more than competent collaborators its due. Director Schroeder seems rightly less interested in the story and more in the nuance of his characters, all of whom Schroeder uses to examine the role of power, control, manipulation and, by default, sexuality.

Here, the biggest beneficiaries of Schroeder's preferred emphasis is the uneven cast. Both Pitt and Gosling deliver terrifically nuanced portraits of disturbed teens who formulate a perfect murder. The constant jousting and jostling for power between the two takes on homoerotic elements, and the film pivots on this constant vacillation that, by film's end renders culpability as they both get unhinged by the unfolding events. The power struggle is mirrored in the relationship between our leads Cassie (a miscast Bullock) and Sam (Chaplin) - she a scarred and vulnerable detective with a past hiding beneath a tough, sexually forward exterior, and he a seemingly docile newbie eager to take control and credit at a moment's notice. The dynamic is fiercely intriguing but unfortunately never quite entirely believable. Bullock keeps it light, and her inability to plum the depths of her darker half (she so brilliantly did in "Crash") keeps Schroeder's vision from being fully realized. And since Chaplin does likewise, the film sits squarely on the shoulders of Pitt and Gosling, both of whom shine in all their scenes together.

Recommended only if you like your thrillers by the numbers.