‘Murder By Numbers’ doesn’t add up to thrills
By DAVID GERMAIN
Associated Press

The numbers do not quite add up on Sandra Bullock’s new crime drama.
Too calculated and superficial to deliver a psychological thriller with real depth, too straightforward to create any sense of mystery, director Barbet Schroeder’s “Murder by Numbers” is a sum considerably less than its parts.

© 2002 Castle Rock Entertainment Agnes Bruckner and Michael Pitt star in "Murder by Numbers."

A clever premise, estimable performances, tingly atmosphere and moments of hearty humor benefit the tale. But they generally go for naught in service of a story that zigzags from a police procedural to a narrative of cold-blooded killers to a portrait of Bullock as a spiritually wounded cop.

The film never settles into a consistent groove, and the slowly emerging back story of Bullock’s character and her past tragedy, meant to add relevance to her current case, instead muddies up the works with needless parallels to the main action.

Bullock plays Cassie Mayweather, a crack homicide detective in an upscale California coastal town who’s paired with a raw new partner, Sam Kennedy (Ben Chaplin).

Assigned to the case of a woman strangled and dumped in a ravine, Cassie quickly and amusingly establishes herself as the alpha cop lording it over Sam, her new acolyte.

The filmmakers eschew whodunit suspense in favor of an elaborate chess game, revealing from the outset that the slaying was plotted by two bright, amoral high school students, arrogant rich kid Richard (Ryan Gosling) and introverted brain Justin (Michael Pitt).

With chilling subtlety, the two up-and-coming actors add solid big-budget credits to recent impressive turns in indie films, Gosling in “The Believer” and Pitt in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

In the vein of other films inspired by the 1920s Leopold and Loeb homicide case, notably Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope,” “Murder by Numbers” presents villains aiming for the perfect crime, an intellectual and philosophical exercise to put them in the rarefied company of people who’ve gotten away with murder.

Richard and Justin carefully orchestrate clues to frame a janitor (Chris Penn), then sit back and smirk as detectives dutifully follow the trail of bread crumbs they’ve left.

Cassie, of course, sees through the ruse, immediately suspecting the youths on instinct because Richard manifests the smarmy charm of a dark figure from her past.

It’s here that “Murder by Numbers” fizzles after establishing a sharp story and colorful character interaction. Cassie becomes preoccupied with her previous misfortune, and the shift weakens her bold character and waters down the more captivating events at hand.

Cassie gradually is reduced from the sort of engaging, formidable heroine common in old Hollywood to yet another female protagonist defined and stagnated by victimization. It’s a disservice to Bullock, who exudes great magnetism as the saucy, defiant Cassie before the story begins to diminish her.

From a commanding, capable detective who knows what she wants and does not hesitate to pursue it, Cassie devolves into a twitchy, terrified rookie who has trouble coping in a showdown with the killers she previously had hunted with cool aplomb.

Truly involving early on, Cassie becomes a dull stereotype as her squeamishness grows.

There’s nothing wrong with piling on emotional baggage for a character to overcome. Here, though, it disables what could have been a stronger cat-and-mice story of a fierce woman facing down a pair of diabolically scheming murderers.

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002