Movie Review: The Oxford Murders (2010)

November 25, 2010 / Leave a Comment

THE OXFORD MURDERS

BY CHRISTOPHER HASKELL
NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Talk about a film that is too smart for any audience. “The Oxford Murders” makes the average viewer feel isolated and ostracized. Whatever means the producers took to get leading man Elijah Wood on board, they should consider themselves extremely lucky. The plot is obscure and constantly changing. The characters play a rendition of Clue and “who killed the old lady in her house with the butcher knives.” The killings and the clues to back them up are ridiculous, and at the end of the film is something the randomizing machine that the “Family Guy” television appears to use works in overdrive.

The suspense the film attempts to produce muddies the film down furthermore. A violation of the female actresses makes you question the writer’s or director’s view on women in general. It is not “The Killer Inside Me” levels of brutality towards women, but something much worse where the women characters are belittled to the point where they do not resemble coherent human beings, merely sex toys and emotional basket cases.

A film about Oxford would probably not fit into today’s movies. Films about murders are countless. Put the two together, and you may think for a moment that something good could be produced, especially with Elijah Wood strategically placed. Instead, the opposite occurs, and the film falls just shy of being an absolute piece of missable compost. And even the most intelligent person in the world could tell you that.