Murder according to plan

Movie
German title	Murder according to plan
Original title	Murder by Numbers
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2002
length	120 minutes
Age rating	FSK / JMK 16
Rod
Director	Barbet Schroeder
script	Tony Gayton
production	Richard Crystal , Susan Hoffman , Barbet Schroeder
music	Clint Mansell
camera	Luciano Tovoli
cut	Lee Percy
occupation
	Sandra Bullock : Cassie Mayweather; Ben Chaplin : Sam Kennedy; Ryan Gosling : Richard Haywood; Michael Pitt : Justin Pendleton; Agnes Bruckner : Lisa Mills; Chris Penn : Ray Feathers; RD Call : Captain Rod Cody; Tom Verica : Al Swanson; Janni Brenn : Ms. Elder; John Vickery : Restaurant Manager; Michael Canavan : Mr. Chechi; Krista Carpenter : Olivia Lake;

Mord nach Plan (original title: Murder by Numbers ) is a thriller by Barbet Schroeder from 2002.

action

The student Justin Pendleton gives a presentation on the subject of " Freedom ". He expresses a provocative thesis: "Freedom is a crime, because whoever really wants to be free acts radically self-centered, puts himself above the welfare of the community." His classmate Richard Haywood, who comes from a wealthy family and, unlike Justin, is at is very popular with girls, shows clear interest in this statement. Together they decide that with their combined intelligence they want to create exactly what almost all serial killers dream of, the perfect crime.

Detective Cassie Mayweather and her new colleague Sam Kennedy investigate the scene of a murder. A strangled woman who is missing a finger was found on a river bank. Cassie, whose life story is largely shaped by the Carl Hudson case, is troubled to learn that a pardon committee is considering the offender's parole. Meanwhile, Cassie and Sam get closer at a meeting on Cassie's houseboat, but Cassie drops him out after spending the night together.

She prefers to turn to her current case and investigate the home of the victim Olivia Lake. Her instinct tells her that something is wrong with the traces of a struggle discovered there, because the whole scene looks too much like a textbook case.

A boot print found at the crime scene was from a very expensive brand. This suspects Richard, but has an alibi and claims that his boots were stolen. Cassie's suspicions against Richard do not meet with approval from her superiors, as Richard has influential parents. The two murderers Justin and Richard, meanwhile, feel safe because they left carpet fibers and baboon hair on the corpse as false traces that point to the school caretaker, Ray Feathers. When he is found shot and everything points to suicide, the case for Cassie's superiors, Captain Rod Cody, is closed, but Cassie does not give up.

She has vomit found at the crime scene examined, and when caviar is found in the sample , Justin becomes the focus of the investigation. Meanwhile, Justin and Richard disagree as Justin and Lisa Mills, an ex-girlfriend of Richard's, grow closer. But Richard sends Justin a video that shows Richard and Lisa having sex, whereupon Justin withdraws from Lisa.

Cassie has since managed to convince Sam that the case is not closed. Also, Sam has found out that Carl Hudson has a lot more to do with her than she wants to admit. Cassie now emerges with the truth that Carl Hudson was her husband who tried to kill her when Cassie tried to break up with him after persistent abuse. Cassie wants to suppress the past, and Sam blames her for it.

When the DNA of Justin, which Cassie got from the household garbage in a not quite legal way, matches the DNA found in the vomit, they can convince the superior, Captain Cody, to further investigate. They summon Justin and Richard for interrogation and try to get them to testify. When they can almost bring Richard to a confession, his lawyer appears, who has the abortion and the release of the two young people.

But the perpetrators no longer agree, and Richard tries to negotiate a deal with Assistant Attorney Al Swanson. When Cassie hears about this, she wants to arrest them again, but they are no longer at home. Justin is reminiscent of Richard because they have made a vow more suicide to commit than to go to jail. They meet in an old house on the cliff, kneel down in front of each other and both use firearms to execute themselves.

Richard meanwhile pursues his own interests. During the attempted suicide, his revolver is empty while Justin's is loaded, but Cassie, who learned from Lisa the meeting point of the two boys, is able to prevent Justin from shooting Richard. She has a shootout with Richard, in the course of which Justin is shot. But Richard is insidious and tries to strangle Cassie after a scuffle on the rotten balcony of the house. Cassie, who feels reminded of her own past, fights desperately. Richard falls to his death when the balcony gives way, but Cassie can hold on and is saved by Justin. When she examines the strangulation marks Richard left on her neck because of his rings, she finds that Justin is not as innocent as he is, because the marks on the rings were not found on the murder victim's neck. With a trick, Sam and Cassie manage to elicit a confession from Justin.

At the end you can see that Cassie faces up to her past and testifies at Carl Hudson's parole hearing.

Reviews

In the opinion of the lexicon of international films , “Murder according to plan” is “an ambiguous thriller based on a historical murder case, which only with great effort manages to keep the opposing narrative levels together. Psychologically well grounded and traversed by exciting subplots, the staging does not find a conclusive design. "

David Bergmann von Filmstarts judged the film to be "an uninspired thriller that is within the genre obligation". “The manner of murder is new, and once again great effort has been made to come up with a perfidious and perfect murder for the murderous protagonists, but [...] otherwise the film is equipped with elements that no one can see anymore wants [...] "and at the same time" leaves some questions open to the viewer [...] ".

Bruno Amstutz from the editorial team at Cineman.ch sums it up: “The fact that» Murder By Numbers «tries to break the conventions typical of the genre should be credited to the film. Unfortunately, however, the criminal tension remains by the wayside at times. "

background

Barbet Schroeder's crime thriller is based on the authentic Chicago murder case " Leopold & Loeb " from 1924, which inspired Alfred Hitchcock to create his " Cocktail for a Corpse " in 1948 . The original title "Murder by Numbers" was inspired by the title of the same name by the band The Police , in which the planning of the perfect murder is sung about.

The hut on the rocks was built especially for the shooting and then demolished again. The interior shots were taken in the studio.

The film premiered on April 19, 2002 in the USA, in Germany and Switzerland it was shown in cinemas from June 27, 2002, and in Austria one day later. The film was shot in various locations, all of which are in the state of California .

For the shooting of the film, which ran from 27 February 2001 to 21 May 2001 an estimated budget of EUR 55 million was US dollar provided. The film grossed almost 32 million US dollars in the USA and 56,714,147 US dollars worldwide. In Germany, a good 650,000 people saw the film in cinemas.