Filipe Neto In this film, two abnormal students decide to perpetrate the perfect crime, but things start to go wrong when an experienced detective mistrusts them. We have seen similar things before, the film is not exactly original in the subject it addresses, being clearly inspired by the crime committed by Leopold and Loeb, decades earlier.The movie never hides anything. From the beginning, we know almost everything that will happen and who the killer is. So there is no secret or mystery and it spoils the movie a lot. The relationship between the two boys is quite dysfunctional and even conveys the idea of a certain latent homosexuality between them. To make matters worse, they both correspond to two detestable juvenile stereotypes (one is the typical impersonal nerd, the other is the rich, idiot guy). In turn, the detective is the typical "macho girl".The actors are fairly decent in their work. Sandra Bullock is very competent and does a fine work. Ryan Gosling is good and gives his character an almost magnetic charisma in a deeply disturbing interpretation. Michael Pitt is not far behind in a clearly crazy character.Overall, it's a decent movie, but it loses a lot for the absence of mystery and for giving of tray everything that the public should wait to discover.

Lele Übermensch (Beyond-Man), Wagner and Nietzsche were not enough for Mr.Tony Gayton, the writer of the script. He added the completely different subplot about Bullock's personal problems. It was like watching two merged movies. Anyway I saw some fine acting and a good cinematography: with a kind of "fan cut" the movie could arrive easily to 9/10. I'd delete completely Sam's character and I'd not done Richard (Gosling) the favor of letting him die by accident. My ending would have been on the double arrest after the failed double suicide. Getting to keep movie's duration under 100 minutes. I'd cut all flashbacks, too. Flashback is EVIL! I had fun with this movie. I will distribute the fan-edition through illegal channels. Keep in touch :)

seymourblack-1 A random murder, a secret friendship and a detective with an attitude problem are just three of the interesting ingredients of this absorbing psychological thriller. "Murder By Numbers" entertains and intrigues its audience, not by posing the question "who did it?" but instead by following the progress of a detective's search for the evidence she needs to support her theory about who was responsible for committing a brutal murder. The fact that her task is made more difficult by her personal demons, her clever adversaries and obstacles created by her superiors, only makes things more difficult and adds to the story's already tense atmosphere.Richard Haywood (Ryan Gosling) and Justin Pendleton (Michael Pitt) are a couple of high school seniors who, despite their very different personalities, are secretly close friends. They meet regularly at a deserted house overlooking the ocean, drink absinthe and are excited by the idea of carrying out the perfect murder as a means of proving their superiority over the police. They're both from rich families, very bright but also bored and the closeness of their bond is symbolised by the presence of a photograph which is actually a composite of photos of both of them.By having no apparent relationship with each other, selecting a random victim and planting misleading evidence at the site where the body's found, Richard and Justin succeed in concealing their own connection with the murder of a young woman and also ensure that the school janitor, Ray Feathers (Chris Penn) appears to be the culprit. Richard subsequently shoots the janitor in a manner that makes it appear that Feathers had, in fact, committed suicide.Experienced homicide detective Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock) is assigned to the case together with her new partner, Sam Kennedy (Ben Chaplin). When her investigation brings her into contact with Richard, her instincts immediately tell her that there's something suspicious about him but she's prevented from pursuing her interest in his connection with the crime by the intervention of Captain Rod Cody (R.D. Call) who takes her off the case.Cassie's a troubled character who still bears the physical and psychological scars of a traumatic incident in her past and tries to find solace in casual sex, drinking alone and listening to Sheryl Crow songs on her houseboat. She has an unpleasant personality, a reputation for being difficult to work with and a history of not following the rules and so her determination to follow her instincts and ignore the instructions of her superiors is regarded as reprehensible by everyone involved, including her partner. Soon after, however, Cassie sees Richard and Justin together and becomes even more convinced that she's on the right track.The two detectives in "Murder By Numbers" are so different from each other that they make an uncomfortable partnership. From the dramatic standpoint however, their juxtaposition is very effective in highlighting how mismatched they are. Sam Kennedy is a decent guy who's well-trained and methodical but also too inexperienced to have developed the instincts that Cassie possesses or to have acquired the kind of insight that enables an investigator to see beyond what the evidence superficially seems to show. Ben Chaplin and Sandra Bullock both make their characters believable and their interactions are important to the development of the story. Inevitably though, it's the performances of Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt that stand out most as they make their characters both fascinating and disturbing and show convincingly how Richard and Julian's personalities complement each other.Justin is the movie's most interesting character because his brilliance enabled him to acquire the expert knowledge of forensics and police profiling which was vital for attempting to carry out the perfect murder and also his preoccupation with Nietzsche's doctrine of the superman was a key component of the motivation for the crime."Murder By Numbers" is strong on atmosphere, rich in complex characters and entertaining in the way in which the investigation of the murder develops.

Spikeopath A modern spin on the Leopold and Loeb case, directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Sandra Bullock as a cop with emotional baggage trying to prove that two high school kids (Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt) have committed what they think is the perfect murder - just for kicks, allegedly.There's nothing exactly awful about the film, it's well performed by the principal players, engrossing in narrative, beautifully lensed by Luciano Tovoli and Schroeder layers the production with a suitable feeling of unease. Sadly there's no psychological depth given the two boys by writer Tony Gayton, which renders the whole motives and means, and the investigation of such, as being a shallow exercise in thriller film making.Running at two hours in length doesn't help matters, because this further irritates that more meat was not written onto Gosling and Pitt's bones, while it also exposes just how hackneyed and clichéd the picture is. Which when the story should be psychologically profound, marks this out as a frustrating viewing experience. 6/10