I had heard good things about this suspense thriller starring Ryan Gosling (peace by upon him) and Anthony Hopkins.

The gist of the plot is that Anthony Hopkins murders his wife and starts a mind game with the prosecution (Gosling) throwing out evidence based on technicalities and manipulating witnesses and so forth. We've seen this sort of thing before and so the plot treads no new ground.

The acting is up to par all the way around. Gosling is terrific and Hopkins is on autopilot, and this is basically a two-man show even though there are noticable supporting actors like Cliff Curtis and Rosamund Pike involved. The latter is reduced to a tagged on love-interest who shimmies into the film as swiftly and gracelessly as she leaves it. The romance is pointless.

Where the movie fails is in its pacing. There is none. this is 5 mph throughout the entire movie. It's character-driven at the expense of the plot. Now, slow pacing can have a point in movies like the Shining or Blade Runner, but here it's just there because they couldn't muster up the strength to kill their darlings.

Without giving anything away, I can say that I was rather emotionally detached as to the outcome of the actual case. When the actual scene that has a pace (there is literally just one where the music picks up) comes up I'm sorta apathetic.

This is a movie for actors by actors and about acting.

It's not bad, but it's nothing special either.

I didn't like it.

I thought the acting was great, but everything else fell flat. I really didn't get the ending. Maybe they should've explained all the legalities of it.

Quoted from ABennettWriter I didn't like it. I thought the acting was great, but everything else fell flat. I really didn't get the ending. Maybe they should've explained all the legalities of it.

SPOILERS

Basically Anthony Hopkins switched his own gun to Detective What's-his-face who was also his wife's lover. So when the detective showed up at the crime scene and agreed to put down his weapon, Hopkins switched them again, so what's-his-face took home the murder weapon.

Then Hopkins figures he beats the wrap because he's already been acquitted of the crime, but the thing is, he was on trial for the ATTEMPTED murder of his wife, not the actual murder. So while he can never be tried again for the crime of attempted murder, he can for the actual murder, and that's what happens.

But the gun shot didn't directly kill her. She was in the hospital because he shot her, yeah, but her death wasn't caused by the gun shot. She would've lived, in that comatose state, until she died on her own.

When that happened, yeah, he can be charged with murder... but not if he killed her beforehand.

That's how I understand the law. I could be wrong.

Well if you shoot someone and they go into a coma from which they cannot wake, and the family turn off the machine, you could still be charged with murder, because it was your action that caused her fatal injury and the machines merely kept her organs alive. That's how I see it, anyway.

Also, just by opening the case of her death, him turning off the machines, they could show evidence that he intended to kill her (even if he can't be convicted of that) and that would go to motive when he turned off tha machines, I suppose. If they can prove he tried to kill his wife, then he's no longer her legal guardian, is he?