Retro Film Review: Fracture (2007)

One of the most irritating trends in Hollywood is the tendency of truly great, talented, and established actors to allow themselves to appear in abysmally poor films, often knowing that it will not harm their reputation at all. Some of the most notable examples are provided by the late careers of Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, and Anthony Hopkins, who could also be seen as one of the examples. After winning an Oscar for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs and turning Hannibal Lecter into an icon of contemporary pop culture, Hopkins began to portray more or less the same dry, cold, and impersonal character in Hollywood films for the next decade and a half. For viewers craving a bit more variety in his repertoire, in 2007 he provided, for the first time since Lecter, the role of a demonic villain, thanks to Fracture, a courtroom thriller directed by Gregory Hoblit. Unfortunately, Hopkins's performance, impressive as it may be, cannot elevate a film built on rather flimsy script foundations.

In the film, Hopkins plays Ted Crawford, a wealthy and successful aeronautical engineer who discovers that his young wife, Jennifer (played by Embeth Davidtz), is cheating on him. Instead of divorcing her, the jealous husband coldly shoots her in the head and then, with the same cold demeanour, calls the police, turns himself in, and confesses to the crime. A seemingly routine criminal case is entrusted to a young, successful, and arrogant prosecutor, Willy Beachum (played by Ryan Gosling), who wants to wrap up this formality as quickly as possible before securing a lucrative job in a private law firm. However, while in the courtroom, Crawford retracts his confession, which is just one of a series of unpleasant surprises awaiting Beachum. It turns out that the killer is quite well acquainted with how the justice system operates and has planned what appears to be the perfect crime.

Gregory Hoblit is not a director known for great achievements on the big screen, but his oeuvre, dominated by thrillers and courtroom dramas, reflects considerable skill gathered on television, as well as the ability to extract the maximum from the cast. In Fracture, he utilises Hopkins playing a villain who is far more "prosaic," yet also more convincing and sinister than Lecter. Gosling, who has just been established as one of the best “hot” new Hollywood actors, is also very good in the role of a "yuppie" lawyer facing the fact that he has met his match.

However, both good acting and good directing are of little use when based on a weak script by Glenn Gers and Daniel Pyne, in which the demonic plan of the antagonist relies on a series of extremely bizarre and completely unconvincing coincidences. Once the experienced viewer recognises the direction in which the plot is heading, the characters' actions are reduced to the usual clichés, and there is, of course, the expected final twist that aligns Fracture with Hollywood conventions. Yet, even more irritating than everything else is the completely unnecessary subplot regarding the main character's relationship with a future employer played by Rosamund Pike. Inserted solely to somehow explain the moral epiphany of the protagonist near the end, this segment makes Fracture overly long, unwatchable, and far worse than its impressive cast should suggest.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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