Murder By Numbers
Two high school intellects — studly Richard (Ryan Gosling) and loner Justin (Michael Pitt) — commit the perfect murder to prove their superiority over mere mortals. Salton Sea screenwriter Tony Gayton (him again) and Reversal of Fortune director Barbet Schroeder clearly want to make a modern-day thriller that draws parallels to past crimes, from the Leopold and Loeb trial in 1924 to the Dartmouth killings last year. On the other hand, star Sandra Bullock, as the cop on the case (along with her partner, played by Ben Chaplin), seems to have nothing deeper in mind than doing a sappy big-screen version of TV's CSI. She wins. Is it maybe because she's also the film's executive producer?