Fracture

Fracture, directed by Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear), is a sort of old fashioned Hollywood style thriller. The opening sequence is brilliant. Jennifer Crawford (Embeth Davidtz) is cheating on her much older (and wealthy) husband Ted (Anthony Hopkins) with a man in her own age group (please take note of him). But Crawford gets wind of it and when she comes home he shoots her. When the police come he makes a confession on the spot but things do not remain the same.

Young hot shot lawyer Will Beachum (Ryan Gosling) works for the DA. But he has just landed a job with a hot law firm is counting his days in public service. His boss Joe Lobruto (David Strathairn) wants him to stay but Willy is looking for the big bucks. However, he still has one more case to crack before he leaves. And you guessed it - it is the case involving Crawford.

The film is like a game of cat and mouse with this old cat Crawford always one step ahead. Hopkins is terrific as Crawford. He is menacing but oh so charming. You can see just how much fun Hopkins had playing him. Gosling is wonderful as Beachum. Just watch his face as his ego is deflated. Also great is Strathairn, who has only a few scenes in which to work his magic.

Hoblit does a good job of directing the film but I wish that the script, written by Daniel Pyne and Glenn Gers was stronger. There are parts of the film where things really sag. And there isn't much character development either. I also didn't think that the "romance" between Beachum and his soon to be boss Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike) was really necessary (but I guess the writers had their reasons for including it). But the wonderful acting and certain well written sections elevate it above the average thriller.

All in all, I liked Fracture but didn't love it. I am not sorry that I saw it but it wouldn't be a bad thing to catch it on DVD either. In the future I hope that Hopkins, Gosling and Strathairn continue to get challenging work. They certainly deserve it.