What makes it different from others?

Fantastic!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This is a black comedy-drama film set in Southwold, Suffolk. It stars Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson and Joely Richardson as three middle-class women (who ridiculously all have exactly the same name) from the same family. Each woman murders her husband, then tries to persuade the coroner to help them get away with it.This pointless, weird, miserable, boring film is very hard work to watch. The numbers 1 to 100 appear in the film - almost all of them are in order, but a few aren't. Some of them are very difficult to find. It takes great concentration to find them all - but they are of no relevance.It's preposterous that these educated killers would think that they could get away with their crimes in a tiny town. None of the characters are likable. The coroner's son is the worst to watch and listen to. He's a very annoying kid who proudly drones on and on about various strange games - as though what he's saying is really important. He - and the film - give the impression that they're old, traditional, rural English pursuits that many people frequently play. However, most of them are either invented for the film or are obscure. None of them have anything to do with the main plot.This film is a waste of the acting talent of its three actresses. It doesn't work as a black comedy, because it isn't funny. It doesn't work as a drama, because it's too ridiculous to take seriously. What point is there to this film - other than to make the ludicrous claim that death is just around the corner in this tiny, prosperous town?

I found this film listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I was keen to see it both for this reason, it had a good cast of British actors, and the critics gave it positive comments, directed by Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover). Basically the film centres on three generations of women, all called Cissie Colpitts, the mother (Joan Plowright), her daughter (Juliet Stevenson), and her niece (Joely Richardson), all of whom are married. Mother Cissie experiences dissatisfaction from her husband Jake (Bryan Pringle) and his philandering ways, she takes her silent revenge by drowning him in a bathtub. But senior Cissie is not the only one, her daughter Cissie II sends her husband Hardy (Trevor Cooper) to a watery grave drowning him in the ocean, and her granddaughter Cissie III ends the life of husband Bellamy (David Morrissey) drowning him in a swimming pool. With these deaths being successive order and all being the same cause of death, local coroner Henry Madgett (Barnard Hill) initially has questions for the three Cissies, they respond by making promises to sleep with him in exchange for his silence and recording the deaths as accidental. Local gossip starts to spread about the water-related deaths, Henry's teenage son Smut (Jason Edwards) comes to the aid three women, so it is them one side, and the doubting townspeople on the other. Throughout the film there are also invented games played, specifically including counting and numbers, going from 1 to 100 mostly, with the involvement of literature and astrology, these are seen played by the leading or supporting characters, or in the background. In the end, the three Cissies and Madgett make what it looks like a getaway from the town in a boat, they deliberately cause the boat to fill with water, the three women throw the objects representing their husbands into the water, while Madgett removes his clothing, but the women join forces to drown him, and swim away. Also starring John Rogan as Gregory, Paul Mooney as Teigan, Jane Gurnett as Nancy and Kenny Ireland as Jonah Bognor. Plowright, Stevenson and Richardson as the lethal scheming trio are delightful anti-heroes, Hill gets his time as well as the coaxed man deliberating and lying about their deaths, each husband probably deserves what is coming to them, and it is most funny to see the deadly action and cover-ups carried out, the number games and music by Michael Nyman add to it as well, a fantastic black comedy drama. Very good!

Peter Greenaway's film Drowning By Numbers certainly has an interesting and unique visual style and some very strong performances. However, in the final analysis I didn't really care much about the story on screen. The film opens with a young girl in a large, star-spangled dress counting out 100 different stars. The framing of the scene is compelling and curious, but ultimately pointless. Throughout the film, various things are numbered in sequential order. After the girl is finished jumping rope, an older woman passes by and proceeds to drown her husband in a tub after he has had an amorous interlude with a younger woman. He doesn't put up much of a struggle and there are numerous apples involved in the romantic escapade, and butterflies too. Eventually the film revolves around the woman's daughter and granddaughter also drowning their husbands with the complicity of the local coroner. Amid this, there are games with ridiculous rules; numbered cows; numerous insects; a self-circumcision; runners numbered 70 and 71 who attend a series of funerals and no compelling narrative. The interesting framing of many scenes held my interest for ten or fifteen minutes, for the next 100 or so I found myself wondering, "Why should I care?"

There are some rare films where you discover something new each time you watch, and this is such a case. Initially you might watch it for the simple fairy-tale story (like all good fairy tales, there is repetition and a good deal of nasty goings-on). Then you might try to spot the ascending numbers that are sometimes obvious in the frame, sometimes spoken by the characters or sometimes really obscure (can you spot 86?). You may wonder whether any of the games - some of which are brilliantly conceived, like The Great Death Game - have ever really been played, or whether they are just products of Greenaway's imagination. Then you start seeing strange connections, like the one between the water tower conspirators' names - all from the apocryphal last words of famous people - and the way each of the Cissies destroys an object symbolic of her husband's occupation at the time of each murder.Even after ten viewings, the film will still have you wondering. The star names at the beginning, for example, contain other Greenaway characters and "Adnams", which is the Suffolk brewer based in Southwold (the Skipping Girl's home is a real Southwold house, by the way, called Seaview House, although there is no Amsterdam Road!).Ultimately the characters' motives are the hardest to understand. Each of the three Cissies (mother, daughter and niece) encourages the next to dispose of her unsatisfactory husband, with Madgett used as a pawn to cover up the murders. However, there are several strong suggestions that a fifth person is behind the whole plot, with its twin themes of counting and death. There is a twist at the end, however, that means things don't quite work out as intended.It's fantastic and surreal to look at, with the typical garishly coloured and deliberately over-lit scenes used by Greenaway in his other films, and quite affecting, although it's hard to feel sympathy for many of the characters involved. I give it 10/10 for its sheer uniqueness and ability to make the viewer think.