Every so often there comes a film with ideas so laughably above its station that it can only be designated a curate's egg. This particular one never made the UK cinemas but could just as well have, since its determined attempt to cultivate an air of intrigue amongst the fusty backdrops of a picturebook Oxford and relentless namedropping of philosophers and mathematicians, the protagonists selflessly summarising such references for our benefit alone, would make a Da Vinci Code viewership feel right at home. Elijah Wood reprises his feisty and nervous Yank at sea from Green Street as a student attempting to curry favour with his crotchety academic idol, John Hurt, amidst a chain of murders which apparently have a higher design (cue the theorems). Various women proceed to throw themselves on him for inexplicable reasons, only pausing for breath to deliver already lumbering lines even more woodenly than our hero. Yes, it's a rare treat to watch an Elijah Wood film in which he stands out as positively multifaceted. Or an atrociously ham-fisted murder yarn set in Oxford which wasn't made by a British director.
De la Iglesia and his writing partner-in-recidivism Jorge Guerricaechevarría (remember Acción Mutante?) must be in cahoots with the likes of Woody Allen in some fifth column aiming to thoroughly mangle Britain as a setting for whodunnits for once and for all. Is this finally revenge for what Michael Winner did on his Godzillaesque stomps across Europe in the '60s and '70s? Mercy!
2/10
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