The Oxford Murders

This one is a real sleeper, one I came across quite by accident. Full disclosure: I'm a murder mystery addict. What fascinates me about The Oxford Murders is the smooth blend of mystery with cutting-edge philosophical theory centering on Wittgenstein, chaos theory, and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Please believe me when I tell you these are integrated seamlessly into the seemingly serial murder plot. What is real? What is true and how do you know it? And just when you think you have all the answers, is there another alternative scenario you haven't even remotely entertained that is equally plausible? (Yes, by the way, but that's no spoiler.) Hurt is masterful as the pompous but brilliant Oxford don. The others all help make the movie work well enough. I don't know whether "Lorna" was in the original 2006 novel on which this is based but her character makes its own pleasant contribution as well.

Al principio es lenta, y no acaba de convencer. Pero poco a poco las matemáticas nos van intrigando, como si la serie Numb3rs se hubiera colado en Oxford, hasta llegar a un final totalmente inesperado. También es interesante ver a Elijah Wood sin interpretar su papel de Frodo, y más cuando ligero de ropa no consigue enamorarse lo suficiente de Leonor Watling.

John Hurt makes this movie at least a 5. Elijah Wood makes it a 3. The math and higher end concepts make it a 6. Overall, above average, decent movie to sit through at home with coffee and a warm cinnamon roll.

What might have been a good premise is completely buried by wooden acting, terrible miscasting, and an incomprehensible script. Nothing and no one makes sense in this film, which is a tragedy for British crime drama fans.

Films with amazing potential that are exploited in one of the worst possible ways and culminate in an ending that is pure garbage. Ultimately a waste of both time and ideas, really to be thrown away, an abnormal disappointment.

Astonishingly bad. When the gorgeous girls start to eye up Wood you know the film has been hopelessly miscast. Grimmer than words. A parody of intelligence and erudition, needlessly filmed in the half-light to make up for the utter lack of suspense. Sorry, no offence, but this guy isn't a lead actor.