Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling face off in this taut thriller.
Everyone needs a break in Fracture. Cheating spouses Mrs. Crawford (Embeth Davidtz), a beautiful wife to a rich older man, and Detective Nunally (Billy Burke), a rugged police officer, who go by the anonymous names of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith when they’re together, need breaks from their boring marriages. Their romantic relationship is broken up when Mr. Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), a meticulous aeronautics engineer, shoots his wife in the head when he learns of the affair.
Needs a Break in the Case
Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) is the ambitious young Assistant District Attorney assigned to Crawford’s attempted murder case. He wants a better break at work – a job at a private law firm where he can show off his 97 percent success rate at prosecuting crimes. Just when things start looking up for him, he takes this apparently open-and-shut case that turns out to be just the opposite. Soon he’s looking for new evidence against Mr. Crawford and a break in the case.
The defendant needs to ensure that he can slip through the cracks on various technicalities. An expert at finding weak spots, Crawford find that crack with Beachum, an intelligent, though lazy, attorney who is so distracted by his pending position and with making good appearances through taking on easy cases, that he will be blindsided by Crawford’s elaborately constructed defense. Fractures, breaks, and cracks appear figuratively and literally throughout the entire film.
Lively Courtroom Action
Fracture delivers some courtroom action and surprisingly a few laugh-out-loud moments, but essentially it’s a character study of the two men: an older man intent on punishing people for their weaknesses, and a younger man committed to winning at any cost. The supporting characters are nearly extraneous: the pretty supervisor at Beachum’s new job (Rosamund Pike), Beachum’s tough-love current boss at the District Attorney’s office (David Strathairn), and detective Flores (Cliff Curtis), who helps Beachum put his case together.
Hopkins again plays a smoothly efficient diabolical criminal – calm and confident as long as his actions produce the desired result. He practically oozes evil, and when he carries out his malevolent plans, no one will be caught off guard. As the young attorney, Gosling presents a different side than he did in the acclaimed Half Nelson, in which he convincingly portrayed a drug-addicted middle school teacher whose life spirals out of control. Here, he plays a man completely in control until he’s challenged by a ruthless killer who likes to play mind games.
While the story will keep you guessing, the film is not as deep or intellectual as it leads you to believe. It’s exciting and suspenseful, with swirling camera action from cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau that views the actors from behind and below, giving the appearance of a controlled situation that becomes more out of control by the minute. Director Gregory Hoblit draws fine performances from the actors and tells the story well.
It looks like the writers could have used a break, too. The reason this film falls just short of excellence lies with the writing. Based on a story by Daniel Pyne, and written by Pyne and Glenn Gers, Fracture needed a few more well-developed twists and turns and a bit more psychological delving to break out of the genre.
- Fracture
- Director: Gregory Hoblit
- Run time: 112 minutes
To learn more about crime dramas read Crime Drama Detectives and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
