Fracture (2007)

Nobody, (and I do mean nobody!) does creepy quite like Anthony Hopkins. This is the actor who brought Dr. Hannibal Lecter to life in The Silence of the Lambs, and in Fracture he is just about as creepy as he's ever been.

Hopkins is Ted Crawford, a well off (euphemism for "filthy stinkin' rich," seriously, his house is impressive) consultant structural engineer type. His wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), is seriously younger than him. Jennifer gets involved in an extramarital affair with a police detective, and Ted finds out about it. Now that we have the love triangle, Ted decides to end it, by killing his wife. As there are witnesses to the shots, and he even admits it initially, this is a slam dunk case for the district attorney. Willy Beachum, played by Ryan Gosling, a young hotshot with a 97% conviction rate, takes on the case as his "last hurrah," even though he has one foot out the door at the DA's office as he heads out for greener pastures (with the green being from the cash at his new practice, not from the grass). With the stage set, how hard is it going to be to convict this guy? It gets pretty tough as Ted finds loophole after loophole, taunts Willy every step of the way, and even takes pleasure out of the whole thing as he makes a mockery out of the legal system.

The acting in Fracture is top notch, however the plot has some holes in it. Much of the story focuses on no murder weapon as the gun can't be found. It seemed like a "Scooby Doo" ending when at the end (SPOILER ALERT!) we find out that the gun was switched. How exactly did Ted get the gun back to the police detective without him noticing? And he didn't realize it had been fired recently? It simply doesn't fit together as tidily as I would like it to.

Then there is the medical problem I found that I can add to my list of medical related entertainment issues. Let's review our CPR: Find someone unconscious on the ground,call 911, then two rescue breaths, and check for a pulse. If they have a pulse then no compressions, if no pulse then start the compressions. Pretty easy, no? I guess that Fracture skimped on the medical consultants as we see the wife on the ground, they check for a pulse, state that she has one, and then start compressions. Huh? There's just no scenario where that makes any sense from what we see in the film.

Putting this all together, we have a finely acted film, but a cookie cutter, paint by numbers screenplay that limits this thriller. Fracture is decent, but with some of these issues solved, it could have been a lot stronger. Anthony Hopkins fans should seek it out, and the rest can wait for it to be on TV.

Overall Grade: B-

Reviewed by Jonas