i expect a lot from this movie and and it do not deliver . the plot and worth a b in a scriptwriting class and pit the complex villain play by anthony hopkins vs. all the one dimensional good guy . i wonder and where be the viewer sympathy suppose to lie . mine be with the villain . because mr. hopkins be the best actor . perhaps . but perhaps moreso because his character be the best drawn and the smartest and and the most emotionally complex . before he shoot his wife and who have just return home from a weekend assignation with her lover ( who later turn up a the policeman dispatch to the house a a hostage negotiator ) and hopkins character tell her he love her . she and cold a ice and tell him and i know . her lover and in the scene just before and have just tell her pretty much the same thing and and her response have be equally cold . so and i have no sympathy for her . her policeman or lover be cheat on his own wife and kid and respond unprofessionally at the scene of the crime and by take hopkins confession despite blatant conflict of interest and and later plant fake evidence . he come off less a a distraught lover than an unscrupulous and incompetent sleaze . i felt no sympathy for him and either . and then there be beachum and the lawyer represent smug and conniving and ambitious . the best that can be say for him be that he refuse to take the bait of the faked evidence . but he seem much less smart than he think he be and and so i waste no sympathy on the lawyer and either . hopkins be the character i be root for because hopkins be the only character with any depth and with more than a single dimension . i want to see him prevail and be extremely disappointed when he do not . and i do not usually side with the bad guy . i never side with mr. hopkins hannibal the cannibal and for example . and i do not see the similarity that some reviewer do between that role and the one he play in this film . i believe that if his wife have say she love him and or seem in any way conflict and he would not have shoot her . no and i only side with the bad guy when their motivation be actually honorable and for this truly be a matter of honor in an old fashion sense and and or or when the good guy be no more than cardboard cutout . all in all and fracture be nowhere near as well write or as satisfying a an episode of law and order . but it a huge credit to mr. hopkins that he do not simply phone in his performance in this film a sam waterson so often do on l and o. hopkins and in fact and turn in a much good performance than the material deserve . i give it six star only because of the talented mr. hopkins . leave out his performance and and it merit only three .