K M

The film is really good and Sandra Bullock is excellent as always. But the stand-out performance is definitely by a young Ryan Gosling who plays a rich, narcissistic psychopath who commits a thrill-kill murder with his ‘nerdy’ intellectual friend played by Michael Pitt. The murder is primarily down to boredom and just to show off their smarts to the police and prove they can indeed commit the ‘perfect murder’. It seems to be a VERY loose portrayal of teen killers Leopold and Loeb who murdered Bobby Franks in 1924 Illinois. They were caught almost immediately as they left a massive amount of evidence at the crime scene including, but not limited to, a pair of prescription glasses belonging to one of the pair and this led police straight to their door. In the film it’s 2 intelligent young men, one who’s the popular kid in school, a narcissist with way too much money and the other a nerdy loner with too much time on his hands, who decide to attempt to commit the perfect murder. They go so far as to wear full body protective suits, gloves, what looks like cling film around their heads and goggles so as not to leave any DNA evidence behind, although one vomits at the body dump, thereby leaving his DNA there anyway. Plot twists are ruined by Hollywood’s insistence on filming certain objects continuously leading you to the end twist and ruining it, if you’re watching closely. They’re up against the formidable but flawed Sandra Bullock, a Detective with a triggering past (as always) who sees through their deception and has her eyes firmly set on them. She’s of course pulled off the case because her incompetent male superiors feel they’ve solved the crime with evidence that’s conveniently handed to them neatly wrapped up with a bow ! She of course continues to investigate the crime and finds the DNA that proves the case against the 2 teen killers. In the end they’re not as smart as they thought they were and the plot twist makes it’s final appearance…. All in all a really good film that’s worth watching and was acted really well by all parties. Could it have been better ? Of course, but it’s Hollywood and you get what you get….