? Anthony Hopkins has apparently killed his cheating wife and confessed, making a seemingly easy final case for prosecutor Ryan Gosling, who’s resigned to take a job at a ritzy law firm.
+ The mystery here, a missing bit of evidence, is a canny invention that by itself practically makes the movie worth watching. But what really makes things interesting while that unravels is the prosecutor, whose desire for justice is conflated with a desire to display his competence, and whose pride and sense of ethics conflict with his ambition. Between the sharp screenplay (by Daniel Pyne and Glenn Gers) and Gosling’s nuanced portrayal, what could have been a corny potboiler about a lawyer choosing between money and public service is rendered with subtlety. The villain is a simpler character; Hopkins differentiates him from his Hannibal Lecter by playing him as deceptively mild-mannered.
- The movie telegraphs its surprise ending a few minutes earlier than necessary. It’s a pretty good twist, but probably one that the characters should have figured out before they apparently do.
= ***1/2 Smart and suspenseful; recommended.
IMDB link
reviewed 4/27/07
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