|
|
||
|
|
Murder by Numbers By Rachel Deahl Review Film Critic Click for Official Site Alfred Hitchcock must have assumed that experimental theories work best in experimental films; how else can you explain Rope. The inimitable director's 1948 flop about a pair of homosexual lovers who commit murder simply to see if they can get away with it was shot in one take. With the use of mounted camera, Hitchcock set out to make a film without any cuts (though there are approximately three camera angle changes throughout). Based loosely on the Leopold and Loeb case, Rope is an impressive, if ultimately unsuccessful film. A cat and mouse game between the murderers and their revered college professor (who acts the detective), Rope reinforces the notion that cinema was meant to be a fractured medium and that movie killers are usually more interesting when propelled by motives as opposed to theories. Similar to Rope, Murder By Numbers is fueled by the murderous deed of two young killers who commit their crime for the thrill of it. Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt play two spoiled high schoolers that attempt the perfect crime for no reason other than it's something to do. As the jock and the geek, Gosling's narcissistic and megalomaniac psychopath pairs with Pitt's soft-spoken genius. Following their twisted game from the start, Murder By Numbers isn't whodunit, but rather, a "how done it." As Sandra Bullock's bitchy and guarded tough-guy detective detects, the teens recount their expertly planned dirty work and attempt to escape capture. But from Bullock's transparent "I'm an angry woman because I've been hurt in the past" character, everything in Murder By Numbers isn't quite as subtle or interesting as it needs to be. The teenage killers are linked by a strange but unexplored homoerotic bond and the theory for the murder itself is dismissive and trite (a vague one, repeated throughout, involving bravery and Darwinism); Murder By Numbers lays out its wares respectably but is finally unable to do anything interesting with them. Without the aid of a mystery, Murder By Numbers focuses on the science of the boys' crime. Of course the science isn't all that interesting when you really get down to it. The killer teens take care to ensure none of their hair gets on the body. They make sure a hair or two from the schlub they frame for the murder (a pot dealing janitor from their school played by Chris Penn) does get on the body. They time their alibis perfectly. So on and so forth. These steps, while mildly interesting, don't amount to criminal genius or the meat of a two-hour film. Timed and executed like an episode of Law & Order, Murder By Numbers is an adequately orchestrated story executed without much originality and even less heart. LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT Click for the Official Site It's an unfortunate fact that as a film genre the 'romantic comedy' is often diluted to inventing idiotic reasons two people can't couple. Be it geography (a la Sleepless in Seattle), silly beliefs in fate (a la Serendipity) or even the weather (as any other poor soul who saw Forces of Nature might recall) there can always be something in the way. In the latest incarnation of this trend, Life Or Something Like It adds death, or rather, the threat of death, to this ever-growing list. Donning peroxide blond hair and a succession of bad knit suits, Angelina Jolie takes a stab at comedy as Lanie Kerrigan, a Seattle newscaster and television personality. With the perfect job, the perfect fiancée (an airhead jock who plays for the Mariners) and a damn nice apartment to boot, life seems to be; well, perfect for Lanie. But when she goes out in the field to do a story on a local homeless man named Prophet Jack (Tony Shalhoub), this neat little package begins to unravel as everything she trusts and believes is suddenly brought into question. Purporting to speak the future, Prophet Jack tells Lanie that the Seahawks will lose their latest game to the Broncos, it will hail the following morning, and that she will die in a week. Trying not to take the spooky prediction to heart, Lanie becomes unnerved after the first two of Prophet Jack's predictions come to pass. Gunning for a big promotion that will allow her to work at a national morning show in New York, Prophet Jack's prediction makes Lanie lose focus on her job and forces her to ask if her existence has meaning. As she begins to scratch away at the neatly constructed architecture of her life, she begins to see the person she's become and the one she left behind (namely a chubby youngster with glasses who had the nickname, Pudge). Turning to the grungy (but, of course, effortlessly handsome) cameraman that she heretofore despised, Lanie finds comfort in the last place she thought to look as an unexpected romance blossoms. And, if there's anything that can stave off death, wouldn't you know it's the love of a good man. Putting aside the fact that Life Or Something Like It poses mind numbingly infantile questions (What would you do if you had one week to live? If you could live your life over, would you do it differently?), it inadvertently passes along the notion that a woman with ambition is a woman who is lost. Incidental as it is, one of the funniest moments in the film comes when Lanie gets the chance to interview her idol, Deborah Connors (played wonderfully by Stockard Channing), a Barbara Walters-like personality notorious for bringing her subjects to tears. As Lanie questions Deborah, she veers from the script and asks the woman about her long lost love, the one she gave up for her career; the question brings on a flood of tears and a humorously ironic twist. The scene also points to the subtle way Life Or Something Like It insinuates that ambition, particularly in women, often comes at the cost of happiness, i.e. a man. Of course all this isn't to say that there aren't some surprisingly amusing and funny moments sprinkled throughout this otherwise forgettable film. Jolie does a standout job in the lead, evolving from a prickly debutante into a lovable rebel. The other notable moments in the film come during the shots on the news set or in the field. Surprisingly, the best and most subtly amusing material is provided by the film's treatment of the TV news. From the small local station in Seattle to the Good Morning America-like set in New York, the idiocy and small-time Hollywood aspect of the local news and national morning shows comes vibrantly to life here.
|
|
|
|
Enable frames | |
|
home | out/about | events | personal | store | classified | real estate | forums | archives | contact |
||
