Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock) is a homicide detective with a disturbing past, she and her partner Sam Kennedy (Ben Chaplin) are called in to investigate the murder of a young woman found abandoned in a ditch. When everything seems to point at the killer, Cassie's gut tells her that things are not quite as they appear, and the real killers find that they can't hide as easily as they first thought.

Murder by numbers does have some good intrigue and suspense in the plot, and yes it does try very hard to do something a fresh and different, but in the end it just seems pretty run of the mill.

6/10 It entertains and it does have a good cast, but its just not quite sharp enough on the details.

Murder By Numbers has detectives Sandra Bullock and Ben Chaplin assigned to the murder of a young woman who was blitz attacked by an intruder in her home. Bullock gets the right scent on things, but the 'facts' keep getting in her way.

This updating of the Leopold/Loeb story that has seen such films as Rope and Compulsion inspired by that famous true thrill kill story has as its protagonists Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt. I think that the author gives us a big hint to the characters of these two right in the beginning when we see Pitt reading a paper he's written for a class about Nietschean superman philosophy and Gosling just pretending to be asleep in class.

The homoerotic tension crackles off the scene with Gosling and Pitt. They are truly into each other until Agnes Bruckner enters their lives. After that it's every bisexual for himself.

These two go far beyond Loeb and Leopold. Not only do they randomly pick some poor women for their kill experiment, but Pitt is a science wiz and he manufactures the forensic evidence that throws suspicion on Chris Penn the school janitor. Unfortunately Gosling really rubs her the wrong way when he's questioned. He's the kind of rich kid you love to take down.

But speaking of rubbing the wrong way, Bullock is rubbing her own superiors just that way. Part of it is male chauvinism, part of it is they don't want to ruffle the feathers of Gosling's father who's the richest guy in town.

Bullock and Gosling dominate the film. Her with her dogged determination to take down the rich kid and him with a terrifying charisma that just about everyone is taken with.

Loeb and Leopold never had problems like these.

Richard Haywood (Ryan Gosling) is a wealthy and popular high school kid who befriends nerdy introvert Justin Pendleton (Michael Pitt). They plan out murders adding false forensics to baffle the police. They kill a woman to set up Richard's drug dealer janitor Ray Feathers (Chris Penn). Police detective Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock) and her new partner Sam Kennedy (Ben Chaplin) investigate. They have a romantic relationship but it's not working out. She's the only one who suspects Richard and Justin, but nobody believes her. They then stage the janitor's suicide, and everybody wants to close the case. Justin is infatuated with fellow student Lisa Mills (Agnes Bruckner),but Richard sleeps with her. This and the fact that Cassie is closing in cause a rift in the partnership.

Director Barbet Schroeder isn't able to instill the proper amount of tension. There are just a few too many side stories. He needs to concentrate on the three leads. The romantic entangle with Ben Chaplin's character is a distraction. It just makes her look weak. I think she could be damaged, but not necessarily weak. Ryan Gosling puts in a good creepy performance. Michael Pitt is likewise creepy but in a different way. Ben Chaplin's character is the most normal and the most expendable. The movie generally could use more excitement or scary thrills.