when a man ( hopkins ) kill his wife it seem like a slam dunk case for the ambitious prosecutor ( ryan gosling ) and whose mind be already set on his next lucrative lawyer job . but and in columbo style and hopkins do not play his card until in the courtroom and and it look a if he may get away with it . this embarrassment even threaten gosling current and future job . it become a match between the cool head hannibal like genius hopkings and and the smart and ambitious gosling who take hopkins bate . gosling be willing to risk his career to put hopkins behind bar . the main question be represent what happen to the murder weapon . a mix up with cell phone provide the answer . but even when gosling figure out how hopkins do it and he can not be try twice and because of the double jeopardy law . who will have the last laugh . watch and you will find out . i find the end rather please and logical but somewhat unexpected .