The Oxford Murders

Tornasol Films

Umbrella Entertainment

R4 DVD

An old and irascible woman is murdered in the University town of Oxford. A strange note with an odd perfect circle drawn on it and the circumstances of her death lead the elderly Professor Arthur Seldom (John Hurt), an expert on logic, to predict that there will be more deaths. He sees the world in terms of mathematics and logic, and the symbol “O” is the start of many mathematical progressions. The trouble is he needs more killings and notes to construct the sequence so he can project who the next victim will be.

Young graduate student and mathematics prodigy Martin (Elijah Wood) isn’t quite so obsessed by academic mathematics but he turned up on the lady’s doorstep at the same time as Seldom to visit her daughter. Seldom and Martin are thrown together, first as suspects, then when more deaths occur as the only help the Police can call on. Confusing the issue is that the murders are what Seldom calls “imperceptible” – the victims are already dying and their deaths could be overlooked as natural causes if it wasn’t for the notes. In the best British tradition the plot has many twists and turns as suspects are selected then discarded. The final events reveal a killer nobody had suspected, with an unexpected motive that has nothing to do with mathematics.

I must say I felt Hurt’s performance was a little over the top for a respected Professor, but he does make the part his own and Seldom becomes the powerful if eccentric intellect who carries the story. Seldom’s problem is he sees all the world in logical terms and in this case that is a weakness. Wood plays the student well, showing a certain awe of the Professor but determined to make his own way in the academic world.

The story is slow-moving for the first quarter as the actors establish their characters and the background, then we get into the “pick the killer” phase. Production quality is high. There is the usual “Behind the Scenes” extra that really adds little to what is simply a good murder mystery.

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