Fracture

Review by  Mark Bennett

There’s a lot of Hannibal Lecter in Anthony Hopkins’ performance, but it does little to detract from the tense drama and mind games that fuel Fracture.

The Silence of the Lambs actor plays Ted Crawford, a structural engineer who owns his own aeronautics company. He has a gorgeous wife Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz) who is cheating on him with another man. One night, when Jennifer arrives home, Ted shoots her in the face. When his gardeners hear the shots and come to investigate, he fires more shots through the window to ensure they call the police.

Later we see a standoff between Ted and Detective Flores (Cliff Curtis), who has come to talk the gun-wielding Ted out of his house. But when Flores gets inside and realises the woman with a bullet in her cheek is his lover, he punches Ted out and must be restrained by other officers.

Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) plays Willy Beachum, a young prosecutor in the district attorney’s office who boasts a 97% conviction record. He’s one week from crossing to the dark side and joining a hotshot law firm – on far better pay – when he has one last case dumped on him. It seems pretty straightforward though: the detective has both a verbal and written confession and Willy figures he can pass it on to someone else later anyway.

But at the arraignment, something unexpected happens – defendant Ted ditches his counsel and chooses to represent himself. He also insists that Willy try his case. Willy, not knowing who he is up against, can see no reason not to accept these terms.

Things do not go at all according to plan on the first day of the trial. Ted reveals that Jennifer’s lover was the detective who arrested him and claims Flores coerced the confessions from him. Also, ballistics determines that the gun in Ted’s possestion at the scene had never been fired. With Jennifer in a coma, Willy has nothing else to go on and Ted’s is acquitted. Willy finds himself looking very bad in both his current and would-be employer’s eyes.

As his world starts to collapse in on him, Willy comprehends the intricate plan Ted has put in motion to ensure he would never be found guilty – even using Willy’s own perfectionism against him (which is what the title refers to). When Ted turns off Jennifer’s life support, it looks like game, set, match to the jealous psychopath.

But has Ted really gotten away with murder? There’s a couple of juicy twists coming the audience’s way before the answer is revealed.

The best thing about Fracture is that its dramatic tension is completely organic – it does not cheat the audience with contrived scenarios or an overwrought score to achieve its effect. It’s only when you look down and see your hands clenched in your lap that you realise it has you in its thrall. It’s a marvel of plotting, too – just when you think it has forgotten something or lost its way, a key turns and the tumblers fall into place.

Hopkins, as mentioned, is perhaps a little too close to Dr Lecter for comfort, but in general the cast is terrific and they, along with director Gregory Hoblit (Hart’s War), make a good script into something pretty exceptional. Like the recently released political thriller Breach, Fracture benefits from well-detailed characters and deep emotional involvement – putting it a caste above your average courtroom thriller.

4 out of 5

Fracture
Australian release: 2nd August, 2007
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike and Embeth Davidtz.
Director: Gregory Hoblit
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