For Hopkins fans, chief among those pleasures will be getting to see the actor essentially reprise his Hannibal Lecter role, suavely toying with his enemies while winking and smirking. The problem is that the movie takes the Lecter factor too far, and Crawford becomes such an accomplished evil mastermind (at least for most of the film) that he might as well be omnipotent. You might want to root for him simply because of Hopkins' charm, but that's not what the movie's going for, really, and Gosling has a tough time picking up the slack and making Beachum a worthwhile protagonist.
Ultimately both main characters are so smug and arrogant that neither is much worth investing in, and Gosling's various actorly tics don't quite make Beachum more than the cocksure young lawyer who wants to get out of the DA's office and into a cushy corporate job. Hoblit is an experienced director of smart thrillers (Primal Fear, Fallen) with an elegant style, and he keeps things moving as smoothly as that marble. When it gets to its destination, though, you realize there wasn't much to the journey after all.