The new film "Fracture," starring Ryan Gosling ("Half Nelson") and Anthony Hopkins ("Bobby") is flawless in its execution. Every facet of the film seems to be perfected with pinpoint accuracy. In fact, the film's perfection is what makes it slightly disappointing.
Directed by Gregory Hoblit ("Hart's War"), "Fracture" tells the story of a man (Hopkins) who attempts to murder his wife for having an affair, and the hotshot D.A., (Gosling) trying to convict him. From the start, the film relies on intelligent twists and turns to keep the viewer engaged and guessing.
The plot revolves around a battle of egos. Hopkins' Theodore Crawford is an overly intelligent aeronautical engineer who spends the majority of the film talking down to everyone he encounters - Gosling's Willy Beachum in particular.
Gosling's young up and comer is, in many ways, an improvement on Keanu Reeves' young, cocky, and na??ve up and comer in "The Devil's Advocate." Sporting a slight Southern drawl and the name to go along with it, the viewer gets the feeling that this guy came from nothing, and, as clich?(c) as it sounds, lost a sense of principle somewhere along the way. Unfortunately, the story spends too much time setting up Beachum's cocky persona and not enough time examining his dynamic change.
All in all, Gosling's performance is solid. And while it may be more the character than the actor, Gosling does not lend the originality or the emotional arch of "Half Nelson" crack addict Dan Dunne to this performance.
Perhaps the actor, like the writer, was too busy perfecting his performance to think about emotion.
Luckily for Hopkins, his character requires very little emotion, if any. Crawford lives his life like one of the many complicated architectural projects that sit in his house. Viewers will be convinced that Crawford didn't kill his wife out of anger, but rather because he calculated that it was the best solution to the problem. The actor has made a career out of being violently amoral (i.e Hannibal Lecter), so "Fracture" must have been a walk in the park.
It's obvious that the supporting players didn't have much difficulty with their parts, citing the lack of attention the screenplay gives them. Rosamund Pike ("Devil You Know") plays Nikki Gardner, Beachum's new boss and romantic interest. Despite her beauty and recent blossoming in Hollywood as legitimate talent, Pike's Nikki is ignored.
After a non-existent sex scene that the editor must have forgotten to include, the tentative couple go to a Thanksgiving dinner. After this, Pike's character all but disappears, never getting involved with the main conflict, thus rendering her involvement unnecessary.
The same can be said for David Strathairn ("We Are Marshall"), who plays Beachum's ex-boss. His chance to serve as a mentor figure for a morally conflicted Gosling comes too little too late in an extremely underwritten scene.
Yet, perhaps it is the film's major focus on its two leads that keep it entertaining. After the opening gunshots are fired by Hopkins, nearly all of the action comes through the dialogue between Hopkins and Gosling, especially during the climatic, yet terminally unexciting, final scene.
It seems that the writers were a little too confident in the juicy premise, while not lending enough confidence to their characters. The movie never gets ridiculous, as it always seems very possible within the winding maze of rules that is our law system. While this was clearly the intention of the filmmakers, one has to wonder what the film would achieve if, instead of being intelligent, it was emotional.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
