Review of Fracture (2007) by Jeremy S — 08 May 2010

When you put one of the best young actor happening today and an old one that still has his creepy touch, you should get a great movie. Unfortunately, I hoped too much. "Fracture" was nothing like great, it was good enough. The setting is a courtroom drama/police investigation, kinda like the new TV series "The Good Wife." But, I thought the movie was in fact a face-off between two highly intelligent people who seem to have a weird connection in a way.

The old actor is Anthony Hopkins. He plays Ted Crawford, a millionaire who loves his wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz). But the wife is cheating on a younger man, and he can't stand it so he kills her. Sign of craziness isn't it? Apparently he's (almost) as smart as Hopkins' famous character Hannibal Lecter.

Anyway, this leads him to go trial with young hot-shot lawyer Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling). He has a 97% conviction rate. A shiny new job as a corporate lawyer is waiting for him. A perfectly set career future. But he's head isn't in the game. He thinks he'll finish this no problem. There's a problem, though. Ted is smart. Really smart. This is all a game he's set up leading for him to get away with his murder. And Willy's now part of it.

Parts of Ted's games reveals smartly one by one. I acknowledge this. It's very nicely done. We are kept interested by knowing this is a game. That Ted is cunning but bad. There aren't any big twists and I appreciate this. I appreciate it realistic approach. And I won't reveal much of the plot after this because that would spoil it.

There's a problem for me though. The movie doesn't really grab us. The execution is lame and dialogue mediocre. Director Gregory Hobbit tries hard to keep us interested, not giving away answers easily; but he fails in a way. There are smart turns and twists, the plot isn't all that shallow. There just isn't enough juice in the movie to keep us going.

A real lift for the film is the amazing acting. Anthony Hopkins maintains his creepiness from Hannibal Lecter. His scenes still steal our attention. But the real deal really comes from Ryan Gosling as the young, charismatic, cocky lawyer. After getting limitless praise from his role in "Half Nelson," he continues to mesmerize. The thing here is that he has so little to work with. He owns the part, ever so serious on-screen, but ever so relaxed. His words flow naturally and the transition of his character is mastered flawlessly. He makes the other actors on-screen look lazy. Only Hopkins and maybe his boss Joe Lobuto (David Strathairn) manages to keep up with him.

Many critics found the picture smartly made and interesting, but the ending anti-climatic. I thought otherwise. The ending was the best part of the film for me. I'll just say that there's a final face-off and that was the best. The body of the film lacked juice, like I said, but the ending: wonderfully crafted.

So, the movie tries to raise many interesting themes: ego, redemption, pride, but ultimately falls short. Whenever the two leads are on-screen, it's just amazing. But when a movie is clever, quiet and has two great actors, there just should be no reason why it has to be so boring.

2½ out of 4 stars.