Fracture is a 2007 American-German crime-mystery thriller film, directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. It tells the story of a man accused of attempted murder on his wife who gets locked in a battle of wits with a young assistant district attorney. After the man is freed on a technicality, the D.A. sets out on an obsessive mission to prove his guilt.
The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was also a box office success, making $91.4 million worldwide against a $45 million budget.
Plot
Theodore "Ted" Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), a wealthy and talented Irish aeronautical engineer in Los Angeles, discovers that his wife Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz) is having an affair with police detective Robert Nunally (Billy Burke). After confronting his wife, Crawford shoots her, seriously wounding her, and immediately confesses the crime to Nunally at the scene.
He then engages in a battle of wits with rising star deputy district attorney William "Willy" Beachum (Ryan Gosling), who considers this an open-and-shut matter and agrees to go to trial immediately. Beachum is busy, making preparations for his transition from criminal law to corporate attorney for Wooton & Simms, a well-known law firm, and begins a romantic relationship with his future boss, Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike).
At the trial, Crawford acts as his own attorney, thereby matching up a star prosecutor against a supposedly untrained litigant. Crawford reveals that the arresting officer (Nunally) was having an affair with his wife, assaulted him during his arrest, and was present during his interrogation. Crawford's confession is ruled to be inadmissible as evidence, as it was fruit of the poisonous tree. Beachum discovers that Crawford's handgun was not used to shoot his wife because it had never been fired and did not match the shell casings at the crime scene. As the house was under surveillance the entire time from the shooting to Crawford's arrest, the police are baffled.
Beachum is tempted by Nunally's scheme to plant false evidence to implicate Crawford but decides against it at the last minute. With no new evidence to present to the jury, Beachum is forced to concede the trial, and Crawford is acquitted. The disgraced Nunally commits suicide outside the courtroom.
After the trial, Beachum's future with the prestigious firm is in tatters. However, he also begins to see his job as a D.A. as a means of fighting injustice for those like Crawford's wife. Crawford himself observes this change, joking scathingly that Beachum has "found God". This motivates Beachum to continue searching for evidence almost obsessively. Realizing that Crawford's plan is to dispose of the only eyewitness to the crime, Beachum goes to great lengths to get a court order to keep Jennifer on life support. Beachum obtains a court order and arrives at the hospital but is unable to prevent staff turning off Jennifer's life support.
A mix-up of cell phones causes Beachum to realize that both Nunally and Crawford used the same type of gun, a .45 caliber Glock 21. He figures out that before the crime Crawford switched his gun with Nunally's in a hotel room where Jennifer and Nunally secretly met. Crawford shot his wife with Nunally's gun, and then reloaded it. The detective arrived on the scene carrying Crawford's gun, and both Crawford and Nunally laid their weapons down as a preliminary move in hostage negotiations. When Nunally becomes aware of who the shooting victim is, and tries to revive Jennifer, Crawford switches the guns, retrieving his own unused gun. When Crawford appears in the room brandishing his gun, Nunally tackled and assaulted him before Crawford's arrest. Nunally unwittingly holstered the murder weapon, letting the unused gun be taken as evidence.
Beachum confronts Crawford with his new evidence. Since she has now died, the bullet lodged in Jennifer's head can now be retrieved and matched with Nunally's gun. Crawford confesses, assuming himself to be protected under the Double Jeopardy Clause. However, Beachum reveals that by allowing his wife to die, Crawford can now be prosecuted for murder, having previously been tried merely for attempted murder. Since he had taken Jennifer off life support, new charges can be filed against Crawford and a new trial can be set. Crawford is arrested by the waiting police.
The film ends with a new trial about to begin, with Beachum prosecuting and Crawford surrounded by a group of high-priced defense attorneys.
Cast
- Anthony Hopkins as Theodore "Ted" Crawford
- Ryan Gosling as William "Willy" Beachum
- David Strathairn as District Attorney Joe Lobruto
- Rosamund Pike as Nikki Gardner
- Embeth Davidtz as Jennifer Crawford
- Billy Burke as Lt. Rob Nunally
- Cliff Curtis as Detective Flores
- Fiona Shaw as Judge Robinson
- Bob Gunton as Judge Frank Gardner
- Josh Stamberg as Norman Foster
- Xander Berkeley as Judge Moran
- Zoe Kazan as Mona
Production
Scenes for the film were shot on location in Encino, California at the Sherman residence (Noeline Ave, Encino, CA), a ranch home designed by Peter Tolkin Architecture. Producer Hawk Koch said, "My challenge was to make our film look like a 60 or 70â€"million dollar film and not spend anywhere near that kind of money. I'm proud that we could make a rich-looking movie, work decent hours and do it for a good price. We owe thanks to our D.P., Kramer Morgenthau, who can light fast and made every scene look exquisite. He's going to have a name as one of the best in the business for a long time to come".
Reception
Box office performance
Fracture was released on April 20, 2007, and opened in 2,443 theaters in the United States, grossing $3,677,000 on its opening day and $11,014,657 on its opening weekend, ranking #2 with a per theater average of $4,508. On its second weekend, it dropped to #4 and grossed $6,814,714 â€" $2,789 per theater average. By its third weekend, it moved up to #3 and made $3,696,060 â€" $1,562 per theater average.
Fracture went on to gross $39,015,018 in the United States and Canada and $52,339,197 overseas. In total, the film has grossed $91,354,215 worldwide,above its estimated budget of $45 million.
Critical response
Fracture has received positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 72% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 172 reviews, with an average score of 6.5/10, making the film a "Certified Fresh" on the website's rating system. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 68, based on 35 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor gave the film a positive review, praising both Hopkins and Gosling's performances, noting that "although Hopkins obviously has played a variation on this role before, his Ted is more playfully malevolent than Hannibal Lecter ever was". About the film itself, he stated: "The plot's many complications pretty much all add up, which is a rarity these days for a murder mystery. It's possible that audiences don't even care anymore if a film makes sense as long as it's entertaining". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly also gave the film a positive review. He also, like Rainer, praised performances of Hopkins and Gosling, noting that "the two actors are terrific". He also stated that "Fracture is working on us, playing us, but that's its pleasure. It makes overwrought manipulation seem more than a basic instinct."
Scott Foundas of Village Voice gave the film a positive review, praising Gosling's performance, stating: "Gosling is the kind of actor who makes other actors look lazy. He is Brando at the time of Streetcar, or Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces, and altogether one of the more remarkable happenings at the movies today." Claudia Puig of USA Today also gave the film a positive review, praising not only the two leading actors performance, but also Hoblit's direction, noting that "he also knows how to draw remarkable performances from young actors, with Ed Norton in Primal Fear and Gosling here". She also added about the film that "it's a provocative game that plays out with intelligence and wit." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three stars out of four, calling the film "gruesomely engaging." William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer also gave the film a positive review, calling the film "better-than-average", he also stated: "It's occasionally quite witty, it's able to tell us a great deal about its characters and their back stories in an economic fashion and its plot swings are surprising and compelling." Scott Tobias of A.V. Club gave the film a "B" rating, he also praised Hopkins and Gosling's performances, stating that "not since Lecter has a role been this well suited to Hopkins, whose intelligence and pristine formality as an actor often make him seem alienâ€"or worse, an incorrigible ham. Gosling is equally good in the less showy role of a righteous prosecutor, investing a stock part with as much droll humor and charisma as he can muster." Justin Chang of Variety magazine also gave the film a positive review, he stated that the film is "an absorbing legal thriller that can't help but taste like exquisitely reheated leftovers."
Ross Bennett of Empire magazine, gave the film three stars out of five, indicating a mixed review, he stated that "the two leads are on fine form, but the surrounding structure is too familiar from a thousand other films. Still, tense and occasionally twisty stuff." Wesley Morris of Boston Globe gave the film a mixed review, stating about the film itself and both Hopkins and Gosling: "You needn't actually see Fracture to know that if the charge is acting that winks, these two are guilty." Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat gave the film two and a half stars out of four, stating that "Fracture may be smarter than the majority of movies out there, but it's not half as clever as it thinks it is." Richard Schickel of Time magazine also, like Bennett, Morris and Vonder Haar, gave the film a mixed review, he stated about the film: "It renders passion dispassionate and turns murder into a kind of fashion statement, something we observe without really caring about."
Accolades
Fracture was nominated for two awards. The first nomination was the Teen Choice Award for Ryan Gosling in the "Choice Movie Actor" category. The second nomination was the World Soundtrack Award for Mychael Danna in the "Film Composer of the Year" category.
References
External links
- Official website
- Fracture at the Internet Movie Database
- Fracture at AllMovie
- Fracture at Rotten Tomatoes
- Fracture at Box Office Mojo