Fracture: A Little Cracked

Fracture should have been good -- I think that one extra rewrite could have made it a must-see legal thriller. Really. But alas, the "Fracture" team let us down by bogging down the legal plotline with all sorts of irrelevant relationship garbage, making the movie too long and exhausting to watch.

"Fracture" is about a man, played by the venerable and overly-typecast Anthony Hopkins, who discovers his wife is cheating on him. Hopkins' character is some sort of wealthy aeronautics millionaire (I think). I'm not sure exactly what he does, though the film tries to tell us, but suffice it to say that he is very intelligent and detail oriented. He's also extremely creepy and kind of funny, a la Hannibal Lecter.

Anyway, he shoots his wife in the head, and, of course, the first police officer at the scene is the dude she's been sleeping with. Hopkins knows it's the guy because he spied on them earlier that day. The cop sees that it's his girlfriend who's been shot and freaks out. Hopkins admits his involvement and gets arrested.

Soon after, we meet Ryan Gosling's character, a hotshot prosecutor who's just been offered a big-time corporate law firm job. He's got one foot out the door, so when he's given a case and told that it's basically set up for him (with a murder weapon and a clean confession), he signs on. However, he soon discovers that Hopkins' character wants to represent himself, and on top of that, wants to go straight to trial.

I don't want to reveal too much of what happens at trial, in case you want to see this one. I'll just tell you that the case doesn't end up being so easy, and Gosling's character is not prepared to win what should have been a slam dunk.

The problem with the movie is not with the legal action-- that's all decent material (except that Gosling's hotshot attorney doesn't seem to have any skill in the courtroom - a minor oversight). The problem is the troubling relationship between Gosling and his new boss, an attractive senior associate played by Rosamund Pike. They immediately and inexplicably begin a romance right after meeting at a firm event. After they sleep together for the first time (the second time they meet), she is already inviting him home for Thanksgiving with her family and arguing with her boss to help him keep his job. This spontaneous serious relationship is hard to stomach, and really distracts from the story. We should be able to concentrate on why Gosling is having such a hard time winning the trial, not watching him shuffle between his current task and future jobs and girlfriends. The worst part is that it's all pretty useless material -- it's not good for a red herring or for character development or anything.

Despite all this garbage, the ending is very good. There are so few good endings in Hollywood these days, so I have to commend "Fracture" for orchestrating a very tight conclusion that might make you feel the dismal journey was somewhat worth it. Unfortunately, when the last five minutes of the film are really the only enjoyable ones, it's a problem.