106 - The Oxford Murders

    A young man goes to Oxford, in hopes of studying with Professor Seldom.  He finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery, as people connected to Seldom start dying.
    I don’t know what to think about this.  It’s interesting enough.  It holds attention well.  But it’s not quite there.  There’s a profusion of flowery dialogue, with the intention of sounding academic.  They try to make the story more palatable by having characters explain the fancier statements in broader dialogue.  I don’t like this.  It’s a bit distracting, and it pads out the running time.
    The actual mystery is a bit of a letdown as well.  I was looking forward to some intrigue, but the longer I watched, I realized that the movie doesn’t give you enough information to get curious about how things happen.  The primary mystery is the meaning of the symbols that are shown.
    There are still some nice elements.  The production values are nice.  Plenty of locations, well shot.  Good sound, lots of extras.  The girl playing the girlfriend is attractive.
    It’s not a bad movie, but it didn’t reach the level it should have.  I’m not sure what could have been done to make it play out the way I wanted it to.