“Fracture” bristles with mystery, anticipation and surprise. Add to that a
terrific script, a good premise and fine actors and you have a good
old-fashioned thriller. You won’t think about your grocery list during this one.
Consider how
they set us up for this pleasure. Within a minute or so we are introduced to Ted
Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), his wife Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), and her lover
Lt. Nunally (Billy Burke). We meet Ted in his airline hangar office where his
attention, and ours, is drawn repeatedly to several world class perpetual motion
machines – balls rolling gently and forever over brass tubes in a design that we
sense sprung from Ted’s imagination. When Ted strides purposefully to his sports
car and roars off down the runway in a wave of noise that rivals that of a plane
on takeoff, we know this is a man who not only cares obsessively about his
surroundings but has probably designed most of them himself.
He is
streaking to the assignation site of his wife and her lover. This man definitely
has a plan. Ted shoots his cheating wife in the head, takes steps one through
three of his blueprint for revenge and then confesses to the investigating
officer who turns out to be Lt. Nunally, his wife’s lover. Now that the complex
premise has been handed to us so quickly, we realize the rest of the movie will
be a theatrical process of resolution.
The reason
this unfolds so well is that an absorbing battle of wits is set up between Ted
the confessor and Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), a cocksure winning prosecutor
from the state prosecutor’s office. A compulsive verbal competition is propelled
by the quick mind and enormous ego of each man. Since Ted and Willy are both
loaded with personal eccentricities as adornments to their cleverness, we are
absorbed thoroughly in their marvelous duel. Each is a match for the other.
The only
downside here is a sub-plot involving a fancy law firm in the process of luring
Willie away for a ton of money and an affair with his new boss. The prolonged
competition between Ted and Willie makes everything else irrelevant. The cast
gives good support, but primarily as landscape for the battle.
The story,
which might have been a courtroom drama, steps into the court now and then, but
unfolds mainly in the world of forensics – A master craftsman has designed and
confessed to a perfect plan, but the able prosecutor must still find the
evidence. Thrilled with his own plan, Anthony Hopkins’ Ted delivers his
strategies with cool precision while he puffs up with pride in his own
cleverness. Ryan Gosling gives Willie the equally cool assurance that he will
best his opponent. The two arrogant men are fascinated with each other; and we
are fascinated by them. They overflow with cocky mannerisms and inspired verbal
weapons. How could you want a better evening at the movies?
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