I’d been looking for something a little more interesting than the usual crime thriller, something a bit more intelligent along the lines of Morse or The Da Vinci Code shall we say, and when this one cropped up, it had to be aired post-haste. Based on the novel by Guillermo Martinez, and directed by Alex de la Iglesias, this purports to be a murder mystery based on a kind of mathematical premise, a serial killer by numbers you might say.

The story centres around Martin (Elijah Wood) who is an American student in Oxford to study alongside celebrated professor Arthur Seldom (John Hurt), but is relegated to just another student at a distance when he arrives. His hero worship suffers a blow when Seldom tears strips off him during their first meeting at a lecture, and Martin looks ready to fly for home, when a murder takes place in which he has at least a passing interest, since the victim is the owner of the house in which he has taken lodgings. Martin discovers the body with Seldom, and so, in the light of a note which contains a mathematical symbol that may hint at further killings, they set out to try and discover the identity of the killer before there is another murder.

The plot itself is not so bad if you read nothing else into it, but the script….ugghhh, I was not sure in most instances who was supposed to be the target audience, since the two leads (Martin and Seldom) spend all of their time with their heads up their arses, talking endless drivel about logic, mathematical sets and philosophical idioms. Worse still was the acting, at least on the part of Elijah wood, he is neither a bookish or intelligent looking actor, nor a striking chap for the ladies, and yet we are expected to believe two Oxford femmes fall for the errant hobbit within minutes of being in his presence. There is no chemistry between any of the people in view, Hurt looks as though he is disinterested, and the others seem to be in a state of hyperactivity. This in fact, is like turning up to see a Rembrandt and having a two year olds scribbles presented instead. Utter tosh.

2.0/10, What I had hoped would be an intelligent and well played film, turned out to be a Turkey of the highest order. Poor acting spoils the visuals, whilst the twaddle thrown back and forth between the leads is just bewildering and dull. If you need a positive to take from it, Leonor Watling as the love interest has nice tits.