The Oxford Murders

I think The Oxford Murders is a very contradictory movie (who knows, maybe it's just me).

First of all, it's very catchy most of the time. There are some very unnecesary scenes during the entire film that were literally a pain in the ass. Secondly, it had very interesting camera shots (there was one in particular that was practically endless, that's very hard to achieve and fun to watch!), but maybe too many because I felt dizzy several times because of some angles, extreme close-ups and weird and/or fast movements.

On the other hand, the lack of visuals was certainly an issue. What bothers me the most is that they are in England for Christ's sake, good visuals are all over the place and easy to achieve. And of course, it would have been really nice to see more of the famous university too.

The performances are honestly flawless. John Hurt made me want to contradict Seldom during his class, to argue with him, he produced in me some kind of displeasure and mistrust that were characteristic of Seldom. He produced in me something similar to what he produced in Martin, I wanted to proove that he was not a genious at all, that he was closed and cold hearted. I wanted to fucking destroy him. Just kidding. But he produced a certain anger in me that wasn't like the anger you feel for a typicall villian, it was more than that, I kept talkin aloud during the film, when he spoke I contradicted him. It was great. Though it would have been nice seeing an Argentinian actor in the role of Martin (as it was in the book), I really think Elijah Wood provided his best performance so far. Completely flawless. I too felt Martin's "anger", his pride yet his insecurity, his desire (or need) to proove he's capable, his weird obsession with his idol that because of his pride (or rather, his insecurity) he needed to overthrow. That's all latent, specially the scene when he breaks the glass. Powerful performance. Julie Cox represented insecurity and isolation better than anyone. You feel so sorry for her that it doesn't even occur to you that she might be guilty. The blind fascination she had for Martin, caused evidently by her need for affection is very well seen when she asks him how does he do to be happy.

Overall, this wasn't as bad as the critics said.