| The Oxford Murders | |
|---|---|
 Promotional film poster | |
| Directed by | Álex de la Iglesia |
| Produced by | Kevin Loader Gerardo Herrero |
| Written by | Jorge Guerricaechevarria (screenplay) Álex de la Iglesia (screenplay) Guillermo Martínez (novel) |
| Starring | Elijah Wood John Hurt Leonor Watling |
| Distributed by | Odeon Sky Filmworks, Tornasol Films |
| Country |  UK
|
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14.1 million |
| IMDb | |
The Oxford Murders is a 2008 thriller film adapted from an award-winning novel of the same name by the Argentine mathematician and writer Guillermo Martínez, directed by Álex de la Iglesia and starring Elijah Wood, John Hurt and Leonor Watling.
Plot
November 1993. Wood plays Martin, an American student at the University of Oxford who wants Arthur Seldom (Hurt) as his thesis supervisor. He idolises Seldom and has learnt all about him. He takes rooms in Oxford at the house of an old lady who is an old friend of Seldom. Also in the house is the old lady's daughter, who is her full-time carer.
In a public lecture, Seldom quotes Wittgenstein's Tractatus to deny the possibility of absolute truth. Hoping to impress his idol, Martin disputes this, asserting his faith in the absolute truth of mathematics. Seldom humiliates him, ridiculing his arguments and making him look foolish in front of the audience. Disillusioned, Martin decides to abandon his studies and goes to his office to collect his belongings. There, he encounters his office-mate, a disillusioned mathematician Podorov (Burn Gorman), who also failed to become a student of Seldom's.
Martin then returns to his digs, where he finds Seldom arriving to visit his old friend, the old lady. The two men enter the house together and find Martin's landlady murdered. Seldom tells the police that he had received a note with his friend's address marked as "the first of a series". As Seldom is an authority on logical series, he suspects that a serial murderer is using murder as a way to challenge his intelligence. Martin and Seldom discuss how easily the murder of the old lady might have been overlooked, particularly as she already suffered from terminal cancer, and Martin suggests that the murderer is committing 'imperceptible murders'.
Martin, Seldom and Lorna, a Spanish nurse with whom Martin has struck up a relationship, try to solve the mathematical clues as the murders continue. They have to contend with police suspicion, a rising body count and tensions between the three of them. There is a wide range of suspects, from the three principal characters to the mathematician and the old lady's daughter. The solution lies in the mathematical concepts, but there are many twists along the way as Martin learns the truths behind reality.
Mathematical and philosophical references
The characters debate several mathematical and philosophical concepts such as logical series, Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty, Gödel's Theorem, circles, the Vesica Piscis, the possibility of perfect crime, "Fermat"'s Last Theorem and its proof by "Professor Wiles", the Taniyama conjecture, the tetraktys and the Pythagoreans. There are references, also, of the butterfly effect.
Production
The film is a Spanish-French-British production directed by Spanish Álex de la Iglesia. Before the confirmation of Elijah Wood in the film, the Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal had been considered for the role of the mathematics student. There were some weeks of speculation on who would play the lead. On 26 December 2006 Tornasol Films announced that Wood was cast in the lead role. The director Alex de la Iglesia commented that he convinced Wood to accept the role for the script. De la Iglesia also praised Wood: “I'm delighted to work with Elijah, who undoubtedly has the most powerful eyes in the industry and who is perfect for the part”.
The British actor John Hurt was cast in the role of a professor of the University, who helps the young student in his quest to try to stop a series of murders. The actor Michael Caine had been considered for this role.
De la Iglesia described daily in his blog the peculiar situations that happened during the production of the film. The film is his first foray outside his typical black comedy genre into more dramatic fare.[1][2][3][4]
Filming began on 22 January 2007 and finished on 24 March, with locations in Oxford and the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. It was picked up for UK release by Odeon Sky Filmworks, opening on 25 April 2008. So far, the release date for the US is unknown.
Cast
- Elijah Wood - Martin, an American student
- John Hurt - Arthur Seldom, a British authority on logical series.
- Leonor Watling - Lorna, a Spanish nurse
- Julie Cox - Beth Eagleton, a musician, daughter of Mrs. Eagleton.
- Dominique Pinon - Frank, father of an ill girl waiting for an organ transplant (engrossed in Neopythagoreanism).
- Burn Gorman - Yuri Ivanovich Podorov, a crank mathematician.
- Jim Carter - Inspector Petersen
- Anna Massey - Mrs. Julia Eagleton, Martin's landlady and Seldom's friend.
- Alex Cox - Kalman, a demented mathematician
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