Review of Murder by Numbers

When it deals exclusively with the two misguided teens (Michael Pitt and Ryan Gosling), their classroom scenes, their conspiracy, their tense relationship, the movie springs to life. When it focuses on Sandra Bullock as a detective with Ben Chaplin as her assistant, it falters badly. First of all, Bullock's character is not understandable until one learns her whole story--but even then, it doesn't let us like her. She's definitely not the usual Sandra Bullock sympathetic character here, and, in fact, as the central character in the story, she's rather unlikeable from beginning to end. Nor does the script give Ben Chaplin much to do except look as if he'd rather be elsewhere, especially since he has to put up with the shenanigans of his most unlikely partner. Bullock is better suited to romantic comedies than serious character roles.

But the boys are wonderful, a Leopold and Loeb sort of pair, who plan the perfect murder and then let things fall apart when they find themselves up against a determined female detective who sees through them from the start.

Slowly paced, the whole thing would have worked better as a one hour crime drama on television. But the charismatic performances of Pitt and Gosling are well worth watching. They're both completely believable as the pair of misguided youths. Gosling is superb as a master of casual menace--grinning and smoothly avoiding detection even when under pressure--until the finale. They are far more charismatic than the nominal leads, Bullock and Chaplin.