- Title: Fracture
- IMDb: link
While Fracture isn’t a great film it is a compelling and fun ride including good performances and a script which will keep you guessing similar to 2003’s Runaway Jury. Featuring a pair of great actors in plum roles it’s the type of film you enjoy watching, even if you can punch holes in some of the plot points later on.
On discovering his wife (Embeth Davidtz) is having an affair with a police detective (Billy Burke) Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) coldly plans her murder. But instead of an intricate plan or an ironclad alibi he simply walks up to her at home, shoots her in the head, and then waits for the police to arrive.
Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), a young Assistant District Attorney with one foot out the door for a new cushy corporate job working under a beautiful woman (Rosamund Pike), is assigned the case. There’s evidence, a confession, and Stevens even plans on defending himself. Slamdunk.
But then odd events start cropping up as the evidence doesn’t match the facts, the affair between the victim and the arresting officer is brought out in court, and through it all Crawford just smiles and enjoys the hell out of the entire situation. Can Beachum find a way to bring him to justice or will he escape and have the power to pull the plug on his wife who remains in a coma, and get away with murder?
The film, though not terribly original, is an awfully good time. The plot turns and twists should keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you guessing where the film will go next. Though you, may like me, figure out the mystery of the murder weapon before it is revealed. Although the final revelations will have you scratching your head more than a little, as they rely hugely on chance and faith (how did Hopkins know his wife’s lover would be the one called to the scene?), the film is carried by the two leads and Hopkins and Gosling are perfect in this film that could have been completely forgettable without this caliber of talent.
The supporting cast is also quite good including Rosamund Pike as possible love interest for Gosling’s character, David Strathairn as the grizzled veteran District Attorney, and Bob Gunton gives a very short but very enjoyable and important role as Judge Gardner, the father of Pike’s character, in an uneccessary but really good family dinner scene that you wouldn’t expect to get in this type of flick.
Fracture is better than it has any right to be thanks to the terrific cast and some nice pacing by director Gregory Hoblit (Fallen, Frequency) that let you ignore some of its sticky plot issues. It’s not a must-see and it does have some flaws, but most of its 112 minute running time it will entertain you and keep you thinking. That’s more, much more, than most films do these days.