‘Fracture’

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike

Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5

It’s great when a movie’s title matches the overall film. Unfortunately, this film isn’t fractured, it’s downright broken. And it’s going to take more than all the king’s horses and men to make it better.

The real problem with this film is not actually how bad it is, but how good it could have been. There is so much potential right from the start. Sexual affairs, murder, high-drama court cases – sounds like a winner and only a bit clich. Yet ‘Fracture’ lacks any real substance, and it never fully draws the audience in.

The story is about up-and-coming lawyer Willy Beachum (Gosling), who has to do one more case in the district attorney’s office before moving up to private practice. Ted Crawford (Hopkins) signed a confession to killing his wife, and it’s a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial. Of course, like all of its murder mystery brethren before it, nothing is as it seems.

What separates this film from others like it, though, is it doesn’t stay in a single genre for long. This is not a good thing. The film has a complete lack of cohesiveness; it never flows from scene to scene. ‘Fracture’ may start with the dark murder but quickly switches to courtroom hijinx as Hopkins represents himself. These scenes, and a few others, are laugh-out-loud funny. But before you can even finish chuckling, the movie switches again into an intense brawl or an unexplained and undeveloped love scene. It’s as if director Gregory Hoblit had so many ideas he threw them all together and hoped it worked. It didn’t.

Even the acting wasn’t great, which is surprising when you have top-notch names like Hopkins and Strathairn. The former, while exceptionally charming (even for a murderer), always felt just a little out of place. Backed by a spot-on Irish accent, Hopkins did have some of the best one-liners in the film and pulled out just enough of the inner-Lecter to remain mysteriously creepy. But whereas in any other film his sly demeanor would have been appreciated, here, with the film’s sporadic feeling, he just seemed awkward.

Strathairn, on the other hand, was neither good nor bad, just sort of … there. It was if he didn’t understand what feelings the movie was trying to represent, so he just left his part blank.

The worst was that Gosling, a talented actor, seemed like he was trying too hard to keep up with his venerated co-cast. If he had just calmed down, his role would have progressed smoothly. But as it was, casting him as the lead did not help to keep anyone’s attention.

This may not be all their fault, though. There is zero character development. Everyone remains one-dimensional, even as they are pushed to the limits. You never learn any background history, and the plot flashes forward faster than you can comprehend what’s going on. It’s hard to get into the feel of the movie when there’s nothing to grab onto.

The worst thing may be the ending, which isn’t awful, but not nearly as interesting as you’re hoping it to be. If the film had come together with a powerful shock you never saw coming, it may have been redeemable. But since it finished with nothing more than an ‘eh’ feeling, the film leaves you feeling let down. Not a good way to leave the theater.

But if nothing else, they got the title right.

SIDEBAR

10 murder-trial movies you should see instead of ‘Fracture’1.’Twelve Angry Men’ (1957)2.’Rashmon’ (1950)3.’Anatomy of a Murder’ (1959) 4.’Primal Fear’ (1996) 5.’A Few Good Men’ (1992)6.’Chicago’ (2002) 7.’My Cousin Vinny’ (1992) 8.Any movie made from a John Grisham novel 9.’Murder in the First’ (1995) 10.’The Kiss’ (1929)

Published on April 19, 2007 at 12:00 pm