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Fracture
Reviewed by Theo Michelfeld
Posted: April 23, 2007

Fracture is not exactly a promising name for a movie. It has the smell of a boardroom decision; one can imagine the round table, and the studio execs cynically leafing through a dictionary, getting all the way to “F” before landing an available title: “Let’s see, Fallen is taken, Frequency is taken… Here we go! How ‘bout Fracture?”

On the other hand, this film stars the immortal Anthony Hopkins, and the talented young actor Ryan Gosling, and it bills itself as a legal thriller, a battle of wits and wills between a criminal genius and an upstart prosecutor. Potential like that should outweigh the warning signs, shouldn’t it? I bought a ticket. What a sucker. The remorse crept in during the film’s second hour, and hit me hard as the credits rolled.

Fracture is directed by Gregory Hoblit, whose previous films include Fallen and Frequency. Hoblit has also directed numerous made-for-TV movies and several episodes of NYPD Blue and L.A. Law. I think the limited expectations of the small screen suit his talents well. Then again, one good episode of Law & Order, The West Wing, or Lost offers more complexity and intrigue than this film conjures in its whole feature-length running time.

In Fracture, Anthony Hopkins once again plays a man of otherworldly genius. As the film opens, he stalks and then shoots his unfaithful wife. He then, seemingly, serves himself up to the state for prosecution. But the case is not as airtight as it appears. The arrogant young prosecutor, played by Ryan Gosling, has one foot out the door for a better job, and he fails to detect the case’s weak point… its “fracture,” if you will.

For the first hour of Fracture I thought I was watching a decent, albeit bland film, with a score that sounded like an unfortunate budget concession. But then, after the initial twist, the movie completely ran out of gas. Clearly, the filmmakers had only one trick up their sleeve, and once it was played, what followed was filler, not thriller. There was no battle of wits. Only an ass-kicking of wits, and then a moral awakening by Gosling’s prosecutor that took about 45 minutes to dramatize, and then a victory by the good guys courtesy of a legal loophole that might have induced a 2-second smirk from Jack McCoy on Law & Order.

This film, indeed any film, is entitled to be something other than what I expected. But losing all its momentum, and squandering all its potential, and following threads that go nowhere, and dramatizing the life out of a simple moment of clarity… these are failures in the art of storytelling that will disappoint any audience.

I suppose the real test of this film’s tolerability will come a year from now, when it is run repeatedly all weekend on the TNT or USA networks. In that context, viewers are likely to be more forgiving. They haven’t driven anywhere, or paid anything, and if they flip channels during commercials, they may find that Fracture is the best of several bad entertainment options. Still, I don’t imagine anyone will ever indulge this film twice. And as it runs and re-runs all weekend long, it will become clear, to all, exactly what Fracture is. It’s Filler, for TV networks, so they can pretend something’s on while they go take a nap, and make money, in their sleep, from advertisers.

Copyright © 2007 Theo Michelfeld