Murder by Numbers
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: April 19, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
18
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Turns potentially forgettable formula into something strangely diverting. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerEllen A. Kim
Schroeder's misstep is trying hard to please his star, whether it be her character's empathetic past or one very fake-looking action climax. His greatest service is keeping her toe-to-toe with her talented co-stars -- and both are the better for it. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
The outline of Murder by Numbers may be familiar, but the filmmakers and Bullock do an expert job of filling in the colors. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Bullock does a good job here of working against her natural likability, creating a character you'd like to like, and could like, if she weren't so sad, strange and turned in upon herself. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
The result is two or three cuts above genre standard. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The story may be about cold-blooded murder, but Bullock's pulsating performance is about the getting of wisdom. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
Even as the psychological interdependencies of the two boys take the foreground, the movie gets more and more crowded with fun-house surprises and cliffhanging set pieces. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Bullock shades what she normally does into something more interesting -- the angriest and sexiest work she's done. [6 May 2002, p. 138]
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Though Schroeder makes you squirm more than you want to at the inevitable scenes of the trussed-up female murder victim, he also has the proclivity and the skill to make at least the B-picture half of Murder by Numbers of more than passing interest. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Towards the end, Murder By Numbers reverts to form with cheesy clichés, plot twists, and a fair amount of unnecessary action, but that's easily the film's low point. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeChris Fujiwara
For much of its length, the film is plausible, if predictable and ponderous. Its strongest assets are its actors. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
In effect gives you two movies for the price of one. The better one doesn't star Sandra Bullock. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
When Bullock is on screen, Murder by Numbers is as far away as a sleepwalker's gaze. But when Schroeder focuses on the teenagers, the film is wide awake, eye-to-eye with adolescent angst and anomie. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
This is the kind of film where the audience has to sort through the sequences, like visiting the green grocer's: liked that bit, can do without those. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Isn't a great movie, but it's a perfectly acceptable widget. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Engrossing but psychologically shallow tale. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Even though Bullock engages in a climactic scene of blue-screen peril, she essentially cedes the match to the kids. In this mediocre murder case, their presence is the only thing that's really killer. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
In Murder by Numbers, though, even Schroeder can't keep his own boredom from showing. Read full review
50
Village VoiceDennis Lim
But owing no doubt to the requirements of Sandra Bullock, the movie's above-the-line star, executive producer, and worst enemy, this potboiling procedural never stands a chance of disproving its title. Read full review
50
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
Doesn't necessarily make Murder by Numbers an awful film; it's certainly watchable, but it never escapes its paint-by-numbers design. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The real surprise, given the secondhand material, is that not everything proceeds by rote in Murder by Numbers. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Ultimately, Murder by Numbers has been reduced to a tease, giving us a hint -- mostly through the fine performances of Gosling, who creates a charismatic sociopath, and Pitt, who's character seems genuinely troubled -- of the kind of relevant social drama it might have been.
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Not even the actress' soulfulness can save the generic climax, in which she tussles with the badder bad guy on a collapsing terrace above a crashing surf. As a colleague muttered, "Murder by numbers is right." Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
There is indeed a murder - two of them, in fact - and the movie proceeds strictly by the numbers laid down long ago in some by-the-book Hollywood writing class. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Neither the crime nor its detection is especially interesting, and screenwriter Tony Gayton doesn't appear to be aiming for psychological insights. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A near miss, a respectable but uninspired thriller that's intelligent and considered in its details, but ultimately weak in its impact. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Starts out dark, thrilling and inventive, then, regrettably, becomes sappy, mainstream and mundane. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
A moralizing thriller so listless that it plays out like a game of mouse and mouse. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
There's nothing blatantly wrong with it (except perhaps the red-assed baboon ex machina), but it's 100% shock-free and coasts to a formulaic conclusion. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The shallow-seated problem with Murder by Numbers is that it's serious and doggedly intricate but not much fun.
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Director Barbet Schroeder is too elegant an artist for this material, which veers between routine cop-movie conventions and high-toned malarkey that seems a lot closer to Dungeons & Dragons than to "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A sappy big-screen version of TV's "CSI." Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleRussell Smith
In context, it's utterly, dismayingly typical. Read full review
30
New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo
Most obvious crime is first-degree dullness, giving us a thriller without thrills and a mystery devoid of urgent questions. Read full review
20
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
This premise could, just maybe, make for a decent thriller, but everything about Murder by Numbers is so flavorless and rote, so devoid of real suspense and human interest, that you never suspect for a moment that the answers are likely to be engaging. Read full review
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