Fracture Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)April 25th, 2007
FRACTURE
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2007 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
What a delight it is to watch Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling go at it in "Fracture"--Hopkins the Academy Award(r)-winning veteran (for "The Silence of the Lambs") and Gosling the up-and-coming Oscar(r) nominee (for "Half Nelson").
This pithy legal thriller from director Gregory Hoblit pits Hopkins--as an affluent aeronautics engineer responsible for shooting his philandering wife--against Gosling as the hotshot L.A. lawyer assigned to prosecute him. Willy Beachum (Gosling), a respected, hard-working Assistant D.A. with a 97% conviction record, takes the case mostly because it's an open-and-shut one: Hopkins's Ted Crawford has already delivered a signed confession admitting he shot his wife in the head, point blank, and later relinquished the murder weapon to the authorities.
Only the gun hasn't been fired...
Prior to that revelation Willy is being wooed by a prestigious law firm and views the case as an easy opportunity to earn some last-minute Brownie points (not that he needs them) before he heads out the door of City Hall and into a plush private sector office.
Initially seduced by the defendant's charming affability, Willy quickly learns first hand what he's dealing with, an intelligent master manipulator bent on messing with his head. There are degrees of Hannibal Lecter in Hopkins's performance of course--the brooding confidence, the outrageousness of his sallies, the cold, calculated menace of his demeanor--but Ted Crawford is a different animal and Hopkins serves him up very nicely: a knowing wink here, a cutting aside there. Ted's the kind of person whose idea of a meeting is to stick up an image of a manufacturing defect on a whiteboard, point out the flaw, and drive away.
In the courtroom Ted represents himself, acting crankily distracted, doodling, all the while seemingly unconcerned by the proceedings. And then, diabolically, he drops the bombshell: a link, in layman's terms, between the victim on the verge of death and the arresting officer. Willy finds himself in the rare position of having to backpedal, all of a sudden completely unprepared.
To speak too much of the twists and turns of the plot would do "Fracture" a huge disservice. You need to experience it in the now as it plays out, cautiously, criminally, ingeniously. Director Hoblit ("Frequency") gives the leads the space they deserve to work off and complement each other and it's a gambit that pays off. Gosling, the young upstart, holds his own against the seasoned Hopkins, who always seems to bring something new to the table.
Backing these two polished professionals is a fine supporting cast that includes David Strathairn as Willy's loyal boss Joe Lobruto, Rosamund Pike (Jane Bennet in last year's sublime "Pride & Prejudice") as his corporate new one, Nikki Gardner, and Embeth Davidtz as the unfortunate Mrs. Crawford who, convincingly, spends much of the movie in a coma.
"Fracture" is a smart, even thriller for grown-ups that's refreshingly devoid of car crashes and explosions. In fact, given the way in which Hopkins and Gosling dance around each other it's more a ballet than a bullet fest.
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David N. Butterworth
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
