Review of Fracture (2007) by Solutions10 — 05 Oct 2011

Crime dramas like these, which only exist to keep you guessing until the end about the criminal mastermind's seemingly perfect crime, sort of have to make sense for that idea to work. Fracture doesn't fulfill that criteria.

The legal proceedings are riddled with creative liberties, making the entire thing a fiasco. The ending turns out to be laughably stupid, and the bad guy is predictably caught doing something insanely dumb.

..except what he's doing wouldn't actually be a retrial for a separate crime as it is in the film, since he didn't murder his wife, they pulled the plug on her in the hospital. His attempted murder charge still stands, but murder does not, and that's sort of a ridiculous way to catch him at the end.

Also, since when do criminal masterminds openly brag to others about getting away with attempted murder all by themselves? Did it not occur to this guy that someone else might possibly be listening in somewhere? You're only talking to the goddamned prosecutor that will do anything to take you down, and you're openly admitting as loud as possible that you shot your wife and then got away with it? The "twist" as to why there's no evidence is also just stupid.

It's circumstantial evidence and would never hold up in court, as it's nothing more than a theory by the prosecution that can't possibly be proven. All the bad guy has to do is deny it, and that's the end of it, since there's no evidence linking the events together, which was sort of the whole goddamned point of his plan.

That's not evidence. If the bad guy had just said, "Get out" once he saw this prosecutor enter the premises, he would have gotten away with everything. Instead, he takes the opportunity to laugh and gloat about his perfect murder.

And then, look at that, no one saw this coming: People are listening outside. Oops! Must've forgotten to read about how many criminals get caught by bragging about it in local bars. None of the characters besides Hopkins are the slightest bit interesting, so any time he's not on screen, we're just waiting for him to turn the tables on the prosecutor again, due to the prosecution's seemingly impossible stupidity.

The rest of the plot seemed like it was just filler. With an ending and a twist this bad, not to mention one that doesn't make any sense, with a legal rule that's badly misinterpreted and totally bogus to finally catch the bad guy, the film just has no excuse.