Director Barbet Schroeder delivers a tension filled mystery for the films characters and a lesson in police work for the audience.

Sandra Bullock stars as homicide detective Cassie Mayweather who is breaking in her new partner from vice. Sam Kennedy, played by Ben Chaplin. They are lead investigators on a case in which an unidentified woman's body is found wrapped in plastic in the woods.

We as an audience know from the get go who the murderers are and they are brilliantly played by Ryan Gosling, who's previous credits include "Remember the Titans" and Michael Pitt from "Finding Forrester" and "Bully".
Gosling plays smooth talking, rich kid genius Richard Haywood and Pitt is quiet, introvert, rich kid genius Justin Pendleton.

The movie takes the idea of Alfred Hitchcocks "Rope", which was loosely based on the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case. It takes two high school kids who have it all and are never fulfilled so they decide to take the one thing money can't buy and that is a person's life.

They spend their time in an old closed lodge that over looks the sea and plot out the perfect murder. And then they play cat and mouse with the detectives on the case.

This film works on some levels but then fails on others. It gives us a tough woman cop with a background that is slowly unraveled before us so we can learn what really makes her tick. The character starts out like any other film or television cop, you know they are the best cop around but do most of their work on hunches and not always by the book. They have their vices like booze or sex. But Bullock is able to give it just enough extra to accept the character.

Schroeder appears to have made a great Hitchcockian thriller that loses out to the big Hollywood studio. It goes along and sidesteps most of the clichés that you would expect but then is wrapped up all too nicely at the end.

There are some inventive shots and storytelling throughout but it is a film that does not stay true to itself. This could be one of those films that will be better viewed on a DVD if there is a director's cut.

Gosling and Pitt steal the show as they play off each other extremely well and always present a feeling of danger at any moment.

"Murder By Numbers" is a fine film to get you movie fix, but if you miss it in the theaters don't feel too bad.