It's kind of difficult to go wrong with the man who I think is one of the best actors of our time and this is true even with movies of his that are generally considered to not be really all the great such as Hearts in Atlantis which was stupid but his performance still makes the film worth watching.
Not many people can pull off a role like Hopkins does and even though I didn't care for the way that this one ended, I did like the rather wild ride that this courtroom drama took us on.
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For younger people the fact that Ryan Gosling is co-starring in this film might actually be more of a draw but I'll let you know right now that he is not his usual dreamy self in this one and I believe that his character is actually meant to be a bit off-putting at times.
The story here is that a very powerful man named Ted (Hopkins) is running around watching what appears to be a happy couple do their thing at a residence but not far into the film we discover that the woman involved in this loving romance that we see a bit of actually involves his wife, Jennifer.
Jennifer is significantly younger than Ted, but not much is explained about how that happened, I suppose we are meant to believe that she was something of a trophy wife because Ted's life is certainly lavish as he scoots round town in his supercar and returns to his home with servants manning the gardens even though it is quite late at night at the time of his arrival.
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I thought this was a bit strange because that looks like a Grandfather / daughter type of situation rather than a romantic one and I didn't really see that coming but well, I suppose Jennifer didn't really see it coming when Ted shoots her in the face.
That's not a spoiler, it happens in the first 10 minutes of the film, is heavily featured in the trailer and is even in the writeup that you would see explaining what the film is about on any streaming service that offers it.
That's not really the meat and potatoes of the story: The real story is how Ted admits that he did the crime when a hostage negotiator turns up to negotiate. Ted also signs a confession to the murder later on at the police station.
The other side of the story here is that Willy (Gosling) is working for the district attorney's office and he is getting out and going to work in the private sector for a huge and powerful law firm. He decides to take on this case involving Ted because it seems like a slam dunk since they have a murder weapon, a guy that admitted to the crime, and a signed confession all in the same situation.
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Things don't seem so slam dunk as the trial carries on though, because as it turns out (and is necessary for the plot), Ted is hyper-intelligent and decides to represent himself in court, bypassing all attorney privileges and at first seems like a doting old man that isn't taking the situation seriously. Things take a dark turn when everyone starts to realize that this might have actually been a meticulously planned murder that because of the pieces of the equation, Ted is actually going to get away with.
I'll leave it at that but lets just say that these things are not presented to you in an obvious way nor do you really expect what you end up seeing next. Ted (again, Hopkins) presents himself in public as being this wonderful grandpa type person and the way that they frame it you almost end up feeling bad for this poor old man even though we, the audience, already know exactly what happened.
What started as an easy last case for "Willy" starts to slowly become and absolute nightmare that could railroad his entire career trajectory.
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There is still a completely unnecessary romance built in there (it's also wildly inappropriate given the circumstances) and the romance is completely unneeded and doesn't really have any bearing on the trajectory of the overall story. I guess it is just required in all Gosling films that this particular side-story be part of it. Whatever! It doesn't ruin things but is certainly the least interesting part of what is going on.
In the end things don't really go the way that you think they are going to and that is something that really appealed to me about this. It almost seemed like it was going down the path that Korean films often do in that you don't always just assume the "good guys" are going to win. Seriously, if you don't watch Korean films you really should start, they are truly something amazing and involve movie tactics that unfortunately aren't often employed in Hollywood even though I really wish they would.
Should I watch it?
Even though this movie is nearly 20 years old, I find it to be rather unique in the way that it is presented and even though I personally would have preferred a different ending, the overall film is much better than most of its type, or really most films just generally speaking. I will watch anything that Hopkins is involved in and since that was made in 2007, I would say that Hopkins was kind of in his prime back then and these are important years to see his work.
Gosling does reasonably well in this one and being in this film likely increased his stock value in acting even though anyone is going to be overshadowed when acting opposite Hopkins.
I had planned on this film putting me to sleep but instead I was wide awake during all of it. It's a winner!
In some regions this is available on Netflix, but for reasons I don't understand it is quite limited in its range. It can be rented on Amazon, Apple, and Fandango