Fracture

Rated: R (for language and some violent content)
Runtime: 112 minutes
Directed by: Gregory Hoblit
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling

Fracture tells the story of Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant structural engineer who has it all – wealth, success, and a beautiful young wife… who’s having an affair. It doesn’t seem to bother Ted as much as one might think, as it affords him an interesting opportunity to test his manipulative genius in pulling off the perfect crime. He confronts his wife, and rather calmly shoots her in the face. Soon thereafter, he’s already given a verbal and written confession to the crime and chosen to move swiftly to trial (where he opts to represent himself). Hotshot young district attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) is appointed as the prosecution, postponing his upcoming move to a prestigious law firm and luxurious lifestyle. What ensues is a somewhat clever cat and mouse thriller where Ted somehow always has the upper hand as he continues to get away with murder.

It may seem like it, but I really haven’t given the movie away. All this can be inferred from either the film’s trailer or DVD case synopsis. This totally looked like my type of flick. I can’t say that I walked away with my expectations met, though. It sort of plays out like a cross between A Perfect Murder (or Hitchcock’s original Dial M for Murder), Double Jeopardy and Primal Fear, but not as good.

Gosling (The Notebook), hot off his first Oscar nomination for last year’s Half Nelson, turns in a decent performance. There are moments where he shoots for dramatic intensity and falls somewhat flat, but overall he continues to show he’s one of Hollywood’s young upcoming elite. Surprise, surprise – the highlight of the movie is watching Hopkins play the bad guy. He doesn’t reach the devilishly enigmatic complexity of his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, but does a fantastic job here. He sort of coyly pulls all the strings in his case, downplaying his intelligence until he finds the perfect moment to trump his damning evidence with a clever display of childish innocence and methodical prowess.

Gregory Hoblit (Fallen, Frequency) lends apt direction, though crafts nothing spectacular in the film as a whole. The cinematography is pretty good, with a few nice camera moves and lots of attractive wide-angle shots – but it’s nothing stunning. The story is engaging enough, but loses itself too often. There’s an unnecessary subplot involving a halfhearted (and wholly unconvincing) love tryst between Willy and his sexy new boss at his new law firm. In fact, the whole move towards his new lifestyle feels forced, and really does nothing to add to the plot. And the ending, while decent, is rather predictable. My wife called it way in advance (probably due to her having read every James Patterson novel). And the final scene is an unnecessary tack-on. The DVD sports two alternate endings (which are variations of each other) and a small set of deleted scenes – all of which are rightly excised.

I wanted to like Fracture, but can’t. I feel like I should hate it, but don’t. It’s just sort of a disappointing example of a film that had great potential and never lived up to it. The filmmakers did what they could – I can’t say they didn’t try. More than anything this really just feels like a showcase vehicle for a standoff between a brilliant Hollywood veteran (Hopkins) and a rising star (Gosling) – but despite good performances, the cylinders never fully fire as the vehicle itself isn’t appropriately powerful. Worth checking out, but only in passing.

My Rating: C