This murders series story full of turns and twists concerns about an US student named Martin (Elijah Wood) who goes to Oxford University for a doctoral thesis . There contacts a veteran professor named Seldom (John Hurt) and join forces to investigate a murders series . Professor and pupil differ the points of view about numbers and on the influence of the treatise logical-philosophical by Wiggenstein , the greatest book of 20th century . The grisly killings are apparently linked to mysterious code , semiotics, and rare symbols.

This mystery murder picture blends thriller , suspense, tension , plot-twists as well as an intriguing script delving on mathematics-philosophical theories . The film works on various levels and is constantly reconfigured , however contains some embarrassing and contriving moments and also certain confusion . Poorly developing love story between Elijah Wood and Leonor Watling . Strong performance by John Hurt (role was firstly approached by Michael Caine and Jeremy Irons) and excellent plethora of secondaries as Julie Cox (Dune) , the veteran actress Anna Massey , the nice French player Dominique Pinon (City of lost children) and Jim Carter as the Police Inspector . Interesting screenplay by Javier Guerricoacheverria , Alex de La Iglesia's usual writer . Atmospheric cinematography by Kiko De La Rica with a good camera work . Suspenseful musical score by Roque Baños who appears as an orchestra conductor . The motion picture is well directed by Alex De La Iglesia . He's a cool director who had got much success such as ¨Accion Mutante¨ , ¨Day of beast¨ and ¨Perlita Durango¨, and winner of several Goyas (Spanish Oscars) , however his movies have not yet reached box office in USA , but he has strong followers . This is without a doubt a mysterious and thought-provoking movie to be enjoyed for suspense and thrillers fans .

The Oxford Murders isn't a terrible movie, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. There are some good things, namely the performance of the immensely talented John Hurt as Arhur Seldon. Hurt is one of those actors who rarely disappoints in anything he's in, and I really liked him here. He has been better though; I loved him in The Elephant Man, which is one of my all time favourite films, and he was terrific in Nineteen Eighty Four, and he has also done voice overs for Black cauldron and Watership Down(which is the better of the two). There is some nice cinematography and scenery of Oxford, a good idea of a plot, nice music and some good performances on the whole from Burn Gorman(even if it meant he did overact) and Anna Massey. Elijah Wood was okay, but he was very wooden, so came across as nothing special. The Oxford Murders does start off very well, but does lose its way in the middle. This probably wasn't helped by the rather unnecessary sex scenes, and the film's pace was uneven, and a little tedious and confusing in parts. Likewise with the script. The ending was fairly good, but could have had more explanation.

Overall, not awful, but could have been so much better, with a more involving script, and more secure pacing, but see it for Hurt. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Although I got the feeling that I was watching an overlong episode of the old Inspector Morse series from the BBC, The Oxford Murders is an intelligent and literate murder mystery as only crimes based at Oxford can be.

John Hurt steals the show as the arrogant iconoclastic mathematics genius of whom young Elijah Wood from America has come to study under and to have him guide his Ph'D thesis. It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but a series of homicides that are linked by a killer dropping Pythagorean symbols at the crimes intrigues this would be Holmes and Watson pair.

Both Hurt and Wood are inextricably drawn into the crime because victim one was Anna Massey, a terminally ill widow of a former colleague of Hurt's. Wood has taken lodging there and almost gets into an affair with her daughter Julie Cox who is also living there and taking care of Massey. He does later get involved with another Hurt's student/protégés Eleanor Watling.

Some nice cinematography especially at Oxford during their Guy Fawkes Day celebration aid the film which does drag in spots. Still the performances are good and the script literate. John Hurt is nothing less than outstanding. Give it a look if your taste runs to cinema that doesn't have to have a lot of violence to make it watchable for you.