Discovering a small gem

In Durrenmatt's plays like The Physicists and The Visit, two narrative strands weave together to combine both suspense and substance, an engaging and accessible plot wrapped in the most serious questions of Ethics and Epistemology. This rare approach came to mind as I watched the 2008 Spanish-British-French film The Oxford Murders tonight. This gripping whodunit raises equally gripping questions about the relationship between knowledge and responsibility, action and influence. I love discovering little gems like this.

At the same time, my appreciation is quite out of line with many of my fellow Americans, according to Wikipedia:

The Oxford Murders received mostly negative reviews. David Lewis, a critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote that despite the fact that "there were plenty of talented people involved", the film had a "clunky script" and was "just plain boring, from beginning to end".^[11] Jonathan Holland from Variety was less critical, calling the film a "polished but verbose whodunit", though he found fault with the dialogue and the romantic subplot.^[12] The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 10%.

 There's no accounting for taste ha ha! Boring? I was on the edge of my seat for the entire film!