When you're flying cross the country and you have 5 hours to kill, sometimes you end up watching a movie you wouldn't expect. There's very little choice on a lot of planes and so the fact that this 2002 unknown action thriller was available made me put it on.
Murder By Numbers is a apt title for a pretty much by the numbers thriller film. A well-written and perhaps well inspired film, but also one in which there's very little takeaway and there's not going to be a ton to say. I called that this was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case, a real life case in which two very intelligent men thought they could smart their way into getting away with murder.
Michael Pitt and Ryan Gosling Star as the two men and Sandra Bullock stars as the investigator, we know pretty early on that they did it and we know pretty early on that she thinks maybe there's something suspicious about them. The rest of the film is putting the puzzle pieces together as to how they did it, who did what, and why.
That's all well and good, and it executes it to the average degree. What I found the differentiated this from certain other movies is that the character stuff is well written. Sandra Bullock's character is very strange and slightly comical and slightly dark. The two kids are well written and they have an odd dynamic. Side characters are pretty well fleshed out and each one delivers a very solid performance. I appreciated that this was more of a character piece than one would need for plot like this and that the character pieces that were attempted were done well.
That said it's the only thing that makes this stand up a tiny bit above the average mystery thriller and I give it a 3 out of 5.
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