| Product: |
Fracture (DVD) |
| Date: |
07.01.08 (136 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Intriguing enough mystery
Disadvantages: Not very memorable
When Ted Crawford, a wealthy engineer, finds that his much younger wife is having an affair, he has a rather severe reaction - he murders her, having carefully planned it to ensure that he will not be convicted of her murder. He then confesses to her murder and decides to represent himself in court, where he finds himself up against a career lawyer, Willie Beachum. Beachum thinks that the case is an open and shut one and that it will help him up the next step of the career lawyer. Unfortunately for him, Crawford is a shrewd man who can see into the depths of his soul and before Beachum knows what has hit him, the case falls down around his ears. Can Beachum find a way of proving that Crawford really did kill his wife or will he walk free?
I have read a number of quite critical reviews of this film before watching it, several of which criticised Anthony Hopkins, the actor who plays Crawford, for playing a very similar role to the one he played in Silence of the Lambs. I have to disagree with this. Although Crawford plays pscyhological mind games with Beachum, it is a much more subtle role and there is much less of a sense of evil about Crawford. I think Hopkins did do a competent job in the role - in fact, I think he did the best he could with it, but at the end of the day, the plot just wasn't quite strong enough to support him.
Ryan Gosling is completely convincing as Beachum, who is frankly not a very likeable character. Unfortunately, it is this very fact that lets his character down - I wasn't convinced that he deserved rooting for and in fact, in many ways, I wanted Crawford to get his own way so that Beachum would have egg on his face. His relationship with his immediate boss was supposed to give him a more human side, but it wasn't developed enough and in the end fell a bit flat. This is a shame because his boss, Nikki, is played by Rosamund Pike, a fine British actress, who has appeared in Pride and Prejudice, Love in a Cold Climate and Foyle's War. In Fracture, she has little opportunity to show what she can do - virtually all she did was look gorgeous and occasionally angst-ridden when things weren't going too well for Beachum.
On the plus side, I did enjoy the banter between Crawford and Beachum; they certainly worked well together and made for an entertaining watch. For such a young man, Gosling didn't seem to let Hopkin's years of experience put him in his place, at least not on screen, and I was impressed.
I have probably sounded more critical than otherwise, so far, but the film isn't all bad. I did enjoy the storyline and it is a perfectly good thriller. I was certainly glued to the screen from start to finish. I think I was perhaps disappointed because it wasn't as clever as I had been expecting. Unfortunately for Anthony Hopkins, his role Silence of the Lambs has given him such a reputation that I expect everything he is in to be of the same quality and this isn't. The fact that much of the film is courtroom-based is a disadvantage for me too - I much prefer a bit more action outside the court - but that is just a personal preference.
In many ways, the screenplay is very clever - I think the banter between Crawford and Beachum is testament to that - and the writers should be commended. However, there was a legal point that came towards the end of the film with regard to double jeopardy (ie a defendant cannot be tried more than once for the same crime) that seemed a little too obvious to make sense. I am not a lawyer, but being a regular film watcher and fan of crime fiction, I do know a little about the law, and unless I am much mistaken, this legal point presumes that the viewer is pretty ignorant. Not very flattering and it certainly didn't endear me to the film.
I'm really on the fence with this film. I did enjoy watching it, but there are some definite flaws that make it a less than perfect film. More importantly, it didn't particularly leave me with anything - no violent desire to see it again or even think about it and yet no violent desire to not see it again. I think I can just about recommend it, but I wouldn't bother buying until you're sure you really like it.
The DVD is available from play.com for £14.99 (all the more reason not to buy it!).
Running time: 113 minutes
Classification: 15
Summary: An average thriller
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