BOTTOM LINE: Anthony Hopkins turns in a brilliantly tricky, yet understated performance in a film that tells a good story but lacks any real tension to get you emotionally invested.

THE GOOD: The previews of this film seemed to suggest a clever-Hannibal type performance from Anthony Hopkins. In many ways, his character is obviously not Hannibal but he does create a very intelligent, cunning character in Ted Crawford. He's so confident he's going to outsmart the legal system that he actually confesses to the murder of his wife at the beginning of the film yet somehow manages to escape conviction by exploiting the legal system's flaws. It's fascinating to watch. There's also a bit of humour and by-play with Ryan Gosling's character Willy who thinks he has the case in the bag when he has no idea who he's dealing with.

THE BAD: The film doesn't really have any tension, and yet it has all the beats of a thriller. One of the problems is Ryan Gosling; he just doesn't match the screen presence of Anthony Hopkins which would be a tough call under any scenario. I guess they couldn't get Jodie Foster. As a result, you appreciate Hopkins' performance but without having someone solid to bounce off, it doesn't really carry any weight. That's a shame because the setup of this film is promising, and indeed it has a lot of intriguing moments, but you come away feeling that it could've been a whole lot more.