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This is definitely a cat and mouse type of movie if there ever was one. The emphasis is on dialogue and drama, not action. It was directed by Gregory Hoblit, who previously directed Hart's War, Frequency, and Fallen. Do you think he just likes to name his movies with words that start with F (of course that would have made it Fart's War)? Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) is the man who murders his wife and Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) is the young hot shot prosecutor that wants to put him away. David Strathairn, from Good Night and Good Luck, is extremely well cast, if somewhat predictably, as Willy Beachum's boss and brings a lot to his short appearances in the movie. It gives the movie an anchor in the real world.

The movie is a nice mix of thriller, cop movie, and a court room movie. The script is smart and there were several places where the dialogue and Ryan Gosling made me laugh out loud, which is hard to do. Anthony Hopkins is a favorite of mine though I wish he would aim for meatier parts, this movie is no exception. I still love to watch him as the doctor in The Elephant Man. He is not given a lot to do here , but the part that Hopkins plays, he plays well. He brings more depth to the part than it deserves, but I am sure he is capable of playing more than just brainy villians. We stay with him. And the movie does a pretty good job of setting up Ted Crawford's environment, and it is not all that surprising that his wife would stray, though this part of the plot is not explored very much. The same goes for Gosling who is excellent in this movie as a lawyer trying to move up and out, but then runs into this case where he has to match wits with Crawford ( Hopkins). The movie doesn't drag and the plots points are well thought out and flow very smoothly. The downfall of this movie is that if you stop and think about all the coincidences that would have to fall in place to make this all work, it becomes a little silly; they do push credibility a bit. But the acting is so strong and the dialogue is so sharp, you don't really notice until the movie is over. Also the movie is structured that all the pieces are spread out within the movie, it tells you enough but not too much, so you don't really notice how preposterous the whole thing is until you are out of the door of the theater. If you are a fan of Sleuthand that type of movie you should check this out.

You can write James Harper at movielover77061@yahoo.com