Count out ‘Murder by Numbers’

Murder by Numbers, starring Sandra Bullock and Ben Chaplin, attempts to be an intriguing Hitchcockian thriller, intertwining the respective stories of two brilliant murderers and their pursuers, but too often fails in its execution.

While on the surface the plot seems like a great idea, the film fails to capitalize fully upon its concept. The well-researched details of the police investigation and murder plot compose most of the movie’s highlights, but the subplots tend to bore.

Bullock and Chaplin are introduced in a highly humdrum manner – simply doing their jobs. They fail to capture our interest from the beginning. The audience doesn’t particularly care about their background stories when they arise.

The high school exploits of Justin and Richard are somewhat more interesting. Justin is a brilliant, but confused, student who forms a not-so-subtle homoerotic relationship with Richard, the school pretty boy. Both fail to make much of an impact, alternately coming across as either heavy-handed or too subtle.

Although Bullock at least appears to be trying, neither she nor Chaplin make much of an impression in this film. Chaplin’s character seems bland from the start, and he never has an opportunity in the script to prove this first impression wrong.

Bullock’s detective seems, if nothing else, miscast as a troubled homicide investigator with a past.

Like many movie stars, Bullock seems somewhat out of place in a dramatic role.

This is especially true in the underdeveloped and underwritten Murder by Numbers. One ultimately gets the impression that her character was written for a different type of actress entirely.

Patchy and unevenly paced, Murder by Numbers is an unsatisfying affair. Although in its defense, it picks up in the second half.

The well-written police work comes to an exciting head in a brilliantly written double-interrogation scene, and the chemistry and jealousy between the two murderers really begins to build. The climactic sequence is both believable and effective.

The problem is that all of this wonderful work arrives too late in the game.

The film will have already lost many of its audience members long before the second half.