HTF Review: Fracture (1 Viewer)

[Neil Middlemiss]

Fracture




Studio: New Line Cinema
Year: 2007
US Rating: R - Language and Some Violent Content
Film Length: 113 Mins
Aspect Ratio: 2:35.1
Audio: English 5.1 and 2.0 Surround Sound
Subtitles: English and Spanish, CC for the Hard of Hearing




US Release Date: August 14, 2007

The Film - :star::star::star::star: out of :star::star::star::star::star:

“Look closely enough and you'll find everything has a weak spot where, sooner or later, it will break.”

Fracture represents a dying genre at the multiplexes. A dark, calmly paced thriller, driven by performances and a taut story versus the more frequently seen eye candy, simple concept or flashy marketing.

Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), after spying on his cheating wife with a composure of stealth and knowingness, returns to his lavish home and waits for her to arrive. Following brief and terse words, he collectedly raises a gun and shoots her in the face. The yard maintenance workers alert the police and soon the house is tightly surrounded with a hostage negotiator readying himself to talk this somewhat portly man into surrender.

In true thrilling fashion, the negotiator turns out to be the lover of the now shot wife. Crawford confesses to shooting his wife, and upon realizing that his female adulteress is lying on the floor with a bullet in her face, he rushes to her. Within minutes he lashes out at the still unruffled Crawford, disarming him and ending the brief siege.

A high performing deputy district attorney, Willy Beachum, working for the office of the city is on his way out, biding his time until he can begin as a high powered attorney at one of the city’s most prestigious law firms. This seemingly simple case of a man, who shot his wife (who is now in a coma), confessed with the weapon in hand and signed a confession attesting to all the facts, falls into Beachum’s lap, promising to be an easy win to add to his 97% conviction rate.

This is when the film sets itself into a swift but patient crime drama and thriller. The cleverness of our main villain, who we have seen carry out the vicious act, is put into full swing. He engages the cocky attorney in a mischievous and dangerous game, feigning ignorance and adopting the posture of a simple man. But the coldness and calculating intensity of Crawford soon becomes a dark cloud over the arrogant and presumptuous Beachum.

Perhaps it is the film’s greatest strength, the dueling minds of the older criminal and the young attorney. The director and writers create a genuine dislike for the one man that is charged with sending Crawford to jail for his crime, while strangely engendering in us a support for the criminally intelligent ‘villain’, in much the same way we found ourselves rooting for the Hannibal character.

Gregory Hoblit, a former television director of Law and Police procedurals such as L.A Law and NYPD Blue is in the director’s chair for this rather intense and slick thriller. Hoblit hasn’t found the greatest box office success with his cinematic ventures, but he has found a distinct voice and is one of the few out there that relish in the dark and twisted souls of those that are criminal and those that stand just this side of the criminal line. His previous films, Primal Fear with Richard Gere, Fallen with Denzel Washington, Frequency with Dennis Quaid and Hart’s War with Bruce Willis, have all been atmospheric films, finding the balance between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, and not being afraid to juggle with what that really means. For Fracture, he pulls us into these distinct characters and moves them both through an intriguing curve of arrogance, patience and retribution – although not necessarily in that order.

Ryan Gosling, an up and coming actor with some notable credits to his name, including the romantic The Notebook and last year’s Oscar-nominated performance in Half Nelson. Few actors can effectively avoid succumbing to the shadow that Hopkins casts with his sublime performances, and as the film moves through the first act, he doesn’t succeed in staying out of the dark. But, in line with his character, as the film progresses and eventually reaches a climactic resolution, he stands firmly side-by-side with Hopkins deliriously dark turn as a methodical and insidiously devious character. David Strathairn, as Beachum’s DA boss is underused but solid.

Overall, the film’s look and feel is solid, using a great deal of light placed under the characters to infuse most scenes with a sinister sense. Hoblit also chooses to frame scenes with distinct shadows and reflections, as well as bathing sets in full color tones, a technique he has used to varying success (Fallen in particular). Fracture turns out to be a tightly wound thriller, expert in direction and performance even if the great reveal isn’t quite as shocking as it could have been.





The Video - :star::star::star::star: out of :star::star::star::star::star:

Fracture is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2:35.1. This is an excellent image, free of any defects whatsoever, no aberrant effects (edge enhancements, etc) that I could see and of high quality throughout. A little soft here and there, but the black levels are gorgeously represented and the tones set but the lighting and colors have nice detail.




The Sound - :star::star::star::star: out of :star::star::star::star::star:

New Line Cinema provides us with both a Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 surround sound. The 5.1 track is another winner from the studio that I consider to be a benchmark for both audio and video quality. The track is immersive and bold, heavy use of LFE and bass deliver some timely audio punches while the surrounds carry the haunting yet simple score from the Danna brothers to great effect. This is a dialogue driven film, accentuated with simmering music and booming sound effects, but primarily driven by character conversations. The center channel carries the vast majority of that audio and is sharp.



The Extra's - :star::star::star: out of :star::star::star::star::star:

Deleted Scenes including 2 alternate Endings – (33:57) – These are substantive, fully finished scenes. There are a couple that provide alternative ways of having some key scenes play out, scenes that set up the eventual reveal, which provides for an interesting peak into the process of piecing together a thriller of this kind.

The Alternate endings included are fully realized versions of how the film could have closed out. Not startlingly different from each other, but different enough to alter the tone of the ending and provide a nice extra feature.

Theatrical Trailer – (2:20)

Sneak peaks – Trailers for The Golden Compass, The Number 23, Michael Clayton, Blade Runner 25th Anniversary and the BBC’s season one DVD release of Jekyll.




Final Thoughts

Fracture is a success with meticulously crafted direction and characters. It is an engaging and engrossing crime thriller, the likes of which are we don’t see nearly enough of. A film with the careful pace on display in Fracture can suffer criticisms of being too slow, but for a film that relies upon the effects of words and the revelation that facts have on the mental state of the characters, it feels just right. Ryan Gosling continues to demonstrate his talents, again providing a performance that tells us, the viewer, as much about him and what he is going through with the words he uses as the looks he gives and non-verbal expressions. As a thriller that is not so much a ‘whodunnit’ but a ‘will he get away with it’, it manages to ratchet up the suspense as the reversal of arrogance unfolds and the tale of ‘cunning’ versus ‘clever’ plays out.



Overall Score - :star::star::star::star: out of :star::star::star::star::star:



Neil Middlemiss
Kernersville, NC