Cast
Sandra Bullock Cassie Mayweather
Ben Chaplin Sam
Ryan Gosling Richard Haywood
Michael Pitt Justin Pendleton
Agnes Bruckner Lisa
Chris Penn Ray

Written by Barbet Schroeder
Directed by Tony Gayton

The market research company I work for screened the new Sandra Bullock thriller Murder by Numbers Wednesday night in Farmingdale, Long Island. Bullock and Ben Chaplin play homicide detectives investigating a series of "perfect murders" committed by two malevolently brilliant teenagers.

THE SCREENING:
As I was getting benches for the lobby for my coworkers to sit on, and poles to block off the mezzanine door, my supervisor Jason had a brief conversation with Sandra, and said that she told him to call her "Sandy." MAN was I jealous! One of my bosses, Kari, asked me to stand just inside the mezzanine door to make sure no one outside the studio used it. Sandra was the one sitting in one of four seats at the back of the theater, up top near the mezzanine lobby door. I stood behind her and to the right watching the movie standing up. The movie was okay, though my friend Nick later said he didn’t think it wasn’t good, and said a perusal of the questionnaires indicated the crowd felt the same way. (Michael, my other boss, would later say in the car back to Manhattan that she said she was happy she was there tonight, so that the producers would see and understand the problems she herself had with the movie.) When the movie was near its end, Sandra got up and walked near the projection booth, peering out from behind the wall between the booth door and the seating area to see the rest of the movie. Seeing it was her, I leaned in near her and said, "Great job." She turned to me, and said, "Thank you." She retreated into the booth when the movie ended. I held a pile of extra questionnaires at the top of the stairs in case of any walkouts who tried to leave without filling out one. (None did.) Mike was ecstatic with my returns, telling me that I got 64 returns out of the 200 passes I gave out (a 32% return rate, far above the 10% quota), that he’d pay me far above what I’d normally get with my return commission alone, and that I got BOTH highpacks bonuses for the highest number of returns (only the second time in three and a half years that happened). Between the movie, meeting Sandra and hearing of my returns, my adrenaline was pumping. After the theater was cleared except for the 20 people selected for the focus group, Sandra came out and inconspicuously sat down on the floor behind the seats she sat at, looking at the group from behind the seats to observe what they said without alerting them to her presence. Kari relieved me so that I could go home with Mike, Nick and Deborah, another coworker with whom I carpooled.

THE MOVIE:
Bullock’s character is the cliched "woman cop fighting against the sexist male blue wall" character (her fellow cops refer to her as a "hyena"—because, it is explained, female hyenas have a small, mock-peniss). She keeps everyone at arm’s length, hurts those in danger of getting close to her before they can hurt her, her investigation into the crimes reflects her own experiences with violence in her past, etc. There’s the usual "lead cop is at odds with her superiors, gets rebuked/suspended/ and must solve the crime on her own" schtick, and of course the subject matter isn’t new, except perhaps for the way it makes two teenagers the criminals, which some might feel a reference to Klebold and Harris, the two Columbine murderers.

In addition to the cliches, there were a few questions and plot holes:

SPOILER WARNING:
The difficulty of finding the two killers that did it was a bit threadbare, as the cops begin questioning them, and Cassie concludes they’re the killers, fairly soon in the movie.

Why is Cassie so self-conscious about taking off her shirt? Was it self-consciousness over her breasts, or a reference to the violence of her past, perhaps because she still had bruises on her body?

The flashback where Cassie, as a young trooper, finds a body, was confusing.

The scene where Bullock stalks Richard Haywood was a bit hard to swallow. Why does she let this piece of cheese manhandle her the way she does? If she had some master plan in which all this played a part, that would be one thing, but the way it was executed, she looked totally flustered, and like a rank amateur.
END SPOILER WARNING

Riding in the car back to Manhattan, my friend Nick said it’s illegal to question a minor the way the cops did with Haywood and Pendleton without the consent of their parents, and wondered where the hell the kids’ parents where in all this. The movie did mention that their fathers were absent professionals whose jobs kept them away from properly raising their sons (one was a senator), but what about their mothers? Pendleton’s mother is shown in the movie. Isn’t she aware that her son has been questioned? My boss disagreed with Nick, saying it’s not illegal to interrogate minors. I wondered if it was different in California, where the movie was set, and Nick said it was the same throughout the entire country. Anyone have knowledge of this?

I will say that Bullock was very likeable in the film. The role was a departure for her, and she acquitted herself well. Also, the teenagers, who are extensively knowledgeable in police procedure and criminology, did convey a certain sense of tension for me, since they seemed to be a step ahead of the cops, knew how the cops looked at crime scenes, and led them in the wrong direction.

I hope the movie’s problems are fixed by its scheduled April 19 release date, to both Ms. Bullock’s and the moviegoing public’s satisfaction.

Man, Luigi, you have a fabulous job, you know that? Have you met any other movie-star types?

My boss disagreed with Nick, saying it's not illegal to interrogate minors. I wondered if it was different in California, where the movie was set, and Nick said it was the same throughout the entire country. Anyone have knowledge of this?

Well, here's what I pulled off a website I'm not certain what it's for but it sure sounded official:

New York does not prohibit police from interrogating 16, 17 or 18 year olds unless their parent or guardian is present. It does provide certain protections for children under 16 years of age who are taken onto custody. We describe these protections below.

We did not find any states that prohibit the interrogation of 18 year olds unless a parent or guardian was present. But we found two states with laws that prohibit police from interrogating 16 or 17 year olds before they have had the chance to consult with a parent or guardian (Alabama and Arkansas). And we found six states with laws requiring in one way or another that a parent or guardian be present before police can interrogate a 16 or 17 year old (Colorado, Hawaii, Missouri, Maine, North Carolina, and North Dakota).

In addition, we found court decisions in three states that establish similar rules for 16 and 17 year olds under constitutional provisions relating to self-incrimination (Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Vermont).
(The 'protections' for New York minors are pretty involved but basically mean making every effort to notify their parents pre-questioning.)

Sorry you asked yet?

Meanwhile...

The movie was okay, though my friend Nick later said he didn't think it wasn?t good

Uh...was that supposed to be didn't think it was good? 'Cause otherwise that's a seriously convoluted sentence...

Bullock?s character is the cliched "woman cop fighting against the sexist male blue wall" character (her fellow cops refer to her as a "hyena" because, it is explained, female hyenas have a small, mock-peniss).

Oh, boy, fun with the animal kingdom! Seriously, this particular esoteric factoid has never shown up on any Discovery Channel special (or Law & Order ep, for that matter) that I've ever seen. How did a bunch of far-from-the-Serengeti cops pick it up? One of those Net trivia emails?

kerriem: Man, Luigi, you have a fabulous job, you know that?
Luigi Novi: No, I don’t. It blows. A fleeting encounter with a celebrity is the exception. But thanks anyway.

kerriem: Have you met any other movie-star types?
Luigi Novi: Several here and there. It’s not an everyday occurrence. Studio people (directors, producers, studio heads) are always at screenings. Harvey Weinstein is just about always at the Miramax screenings, and Bob as well. But with actors, it’s only a once-in-a-while thing. I met Ron Howard when we screened Ed TV. Hugh Grant was at a Mickey Blue Eyes screening with Liz Hurley, but I didn’t meet him. I later met him at the Sony Lincoln Square Theater in NYC. (that area gets a lot of celebs. I’ve seen or met Ben Stiller, John Ritter, Amy Yasbeck, Mike Wallace, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, John Stossel, and Sarah Jessica Parker there. I almost recruited this one guy with dark glasses for Shaft, before I realized it was Isaac Hayes! My friend Nick met Steven Spielberg, and man, was I jealous of that! Jimmy Fallon walked into the Loews E-Walk on 42nd and 8th when I was recruiting there once.) When Mark Hamill published a screenplay he’s been trying to get made into a movie as a comic miniseries, The Black Pearl, I met him at a store signing in NYC. I met Samuel L. Jackson, Steve Buscemi and Bruce Willis at the Unbreakable premeire. Donald Trump, Ben Affleck, and everyone else was there too. I saw Ben Stiller, Ed Norton and Salma Hayek at the Keeping the Faith premeire, but didn’t meet them. I helped seat Kyle MacLachlan at the Pearl Harbor premeire, and sat behind The View’s Lisa Ling and her boyfriend, The Fast and the Furious’s Rick Yune, at a screening for The One.

I’d say the three coolest encounters I’ve had were:

Getting Denzel Washington’s autograph in Paramus, NJ when we screened The Bone Collector. I told him he should’ve gotten the Oscar for Malcolm X, and he responded jokingly, "Yeah, I should have!"

Shaking Jackie Chan’s hand at the U.S. premiere of The Legend of Druken Master.

Ending up partying until 5am with my friends at Bruce Willis’ suite at the Four Seasons the night of the Unbreakable premeire. (This was through a totally freak set of occurrences that does NOT normally happen, kerri, and it’s not like Bruce and I had a deep conversation, or anything. It was basically a "friend of a friend" kinda thing.)

kerriem: New York does not prohibit police from interrogating 16, 17 or 18 year olds unless their parent or guardian is present.
Luigi Novi: Shouldn’t it read that it does prohibit it unless the parent or guardian is present?

kerriem: Sorry you asked yet?
Luigi Novi: Nope. I appreciate it.

kerriem: Uh...was that supposed to be didn't think it was good? 'Cause otherwise that's a seriously convoluted sentence...
Luigi Novi: Yeah, that’s what I meant. Thanks.

kerriem: Oh, boy, fun with the animal kingdom! Seriously, this particular esoteric factoid has never shown up on any Discovery Channel special (or Law & Order ep, for that matter) that I've ever seen. How did a bunch of far-from-the-Serengeti cops pick it up? One of those Net trivia emails?
Luigi Novi: That’s another nit I forgot to mention! Since when do a bunch of sexist good ‘ol boy cops come up with a metaphor based on such an esoteric piece of trivia?

>"The flashback where Cassie, as a young trooper, finds a body, was confusing."

She isn't the young trooper in the flashback--she's the victim lying on the ground. The trooper looks a lot like her, and that's what the audience is supposed to think at first, but then there's the shock of seeing the victim's face.

I assume that's also why she's so concerned about taking off her shirt. In one scene you can see some very grusome knife scars reaching almost to her shoulder. The implication is that her chest is very seriously scarred.