There are three kinds of murder mystery/thrillers in this world. Obvious ones, Clever ones, and ones that try to be clever but have too many plot holes, red herrings, and omitted bits of information for anyone to see the ending before it happens. This film falls into the third category. Had we known that Hopkins' character had bought a gun that was identical to a police model, we would have known what happened from the beginning but we weren't even allowed to see the gun until near the end of the film when Ryan's character pulls together the pieces of the plot.<br /><br />So much was wrong with this film: Anthony Hopkins reprises much of his Hannibal Lector persona but without all the crazy. Ryan Gosling isn't believable as a lawyer with prospects of being head hunted by a major firm. Ryan still looks like the 'kid next door' type. Ed Norton has the same kind of looks but Ed can turn on the smoldering sexuality when he needs to, Ryan tries but just ends up looking like a horny pool boy. Ryan's love interest was completely unnecessary to the film and was only irritating. Worst of all was that the 'clever' plot line that was supposed to be the diabolical plot of Hopkins' character was nothing more than a series of lucky coincidences, the most unbelievable of which was that the wife never told her lover what her name was or where she lived.<br /><br />In the real world, the due process of police investigation and court procedure would have clarified many of the plot holes. An officer can not fire his gun without accounting for each and every bullet, he also writes a report after every event that would have shown he had put his gun down while he turned his back, which he wouldn't have done to start with. Worst of all, the trial would not have occurred without a pretrial and would never have gone to trial without a murder weapon with the added issue of the police officer being involved with the victim and the husband signing a confession without legal counsel.<br /><br />In other words, this whole film is complete fantasy and would never happen from the first plot hole to the last.