I went into this expecting a pretty decent film but not necessarily a great one and in the end that what i got.<br /><br />To be honest some aspects of it were much better than i expected. Some of the direction and camera work mostly during the first half was rather impressive and the performances of Hopkins, who unlike may I never really find to amazing, was very very good. His murder was played in a very humor and down right cool manner. Gosling also did a pretty good job, though IMO some of his mannerisms didn't work.(though that could be on the director)<br /><br />The first half of the film was very interesting and moved at a steady pace, and the way Hopkins character played the system was impressive but the last half hour or so dragged IMO and took to long to get to the twist. The twist was also revealed in a rather convenient manner but the actual twist at the end was clever.