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Directed by: Gregory Hoblit Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn The premise of the film is that Ted Crawford's (Hopkins) wife is having an affair. He kills her and confesses to the murder. What seems like an open and shut case for DA Willy Beachum (Gosling) turns out to be a carefully planned legal-game of Crawford's construction. Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling are both fantastic. David Strathairn even makes an impression with his limted part. The film starts out well and maintains a good thriller pace without resorting to downright sillyness... until the twist is revealed. A twist that honestly I picked up right away at the beginning of the film but thought "no, that's too cliche to use" and set aside. The soundtrack as well was far too forceful. It pounded out when it should've been more subtle. It felt like it was trying to "action up" the film for some reason. I found it jarring and noticably didn't suit a few scenes at all. In the end it's an average thriller that's enhanced with some great acting making it good. RATING: 3.5 PROS: Great acting from Hopkins, Gosling and Strathairn. Very solid thriller film that maintains a great pace for most of the film. CONS: Soundtrack is too in your face and should've been more subtle. Kind of comes apart at the end with a cliche twist. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488120/
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Apr 23, 2007 07:33
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I enjoyed this movie, but like doctor 7, I noticed the big twist of the movie before it was revealed. Aside from that, it has a pretty good ironic twist at the end. The acting was good, and Hopkins' and Gosling's scenes together were really well acted. I rate this movie about 4 stars.
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Apr 25, 2007 00:51
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Here is another movie that includes an ending twist for the sake of just having a big twist. The movie was fine until they decided to go with this twist (which the director drops a big visual clue on 15 minutes into the movie). The ending will satisfy depending on how easily pleased you are... if you enjoy the movies main character who appears to outsmart lawyers cops and judges being punked and undone by a huge oversight then you'll enjoy the ending. But if you cant sit and enjoy the character going from insanely clever to escaped retard in the last 5 minutes stay away.
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Apr 27, 2007 02:48
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There was actually some pretty great acting from Gosling (and Hopkins is his usual self) in this, which was unfortunately slaughtered by a ridiculously simple plot twist that is completely unbelievable, no matter how much you suspend everything you know about the real world. This story should have been set pre-computer age to really work. Ugh, such a stupid plot hinge. 2/5
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Apr 29, 2007 03:26
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I enjoyed it, Hopkins was of course fantastic in his role, because he's so good at that sort of character. I think what I enjoyed the most was how the writing kept you from really being able to choose a side. All through the movie, it felt like the focus kept shifting. You find yourself rooting for the lawyer, and then, oh, you find yourself rooting for the murderer and hoping the lawyer fails... I really hate cookie cutter villains and I think this movie did a good job of having characters you could relate to on all sorts of levels. The ending was kind of meh. The "original" ending was good, it wrapped everything up nicely I thought, even if it wasn't exactly shocking. The "alternate" ending on the dvd? For gods sake don't watch it. It is indeed fairly different, but you watch the murderer, who has been incredibly clever and has planned every step of this journey, turn into a bumbling idiot and completely freak out. I'm so glad they didn't go with that ending because I'd probably be throwing things at the TV because of the stupidity of it all. At least the ending they chose still fit the characters. Even the lines were awkward. [DVD Alternate ending spoiler] "But there's... Double Jeopardy. ...Sorry." "Your wife's dead. ...Sorry." Oh what the gently caress is this writing... it makes me cringe. There's actually two alternate endings on the DVD, but the second one is almost identical to the first alternate ending and was almost certainly put on there just so they could advertise "TWO ALTERNATE ENDINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!" all over the case. We fast-forwarded through them both trying to figure out the difference, and it's like, two spliced in scenes into the exact same ending. Waste of time. I wanted an alternate ending where the murderer won, dammit.
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Aug 29, 2007 19:19
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