TonyMontana96
(Originally reviewed: 29/03/2017) Just when I thought I had seen enough 'prove I did it' thriller's to last a lifetime, I came across this one starring Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins, and it turned out as a good, well executed thriller, nothing more, nothing less. The plot is nothing special, it has a lot of simplicity, including average courtroom drama that never feels tense like other films that use this plot device, and offers little in terms of surprises, until the third act which is smart and most satisfying, but the middle act borders on being very slow and at times clichéd, so I think the picture is lucky enough to benefit from having two strong actors who keep the story fairly interesting and entertaining; those are Ryan Gosling who plays Willy Beachum, an overconfident, but likable prosecutor and Anthony Hopkins as a rich old guy who gets jealous of his younger wife' and her secret lover's affair by attempting to murder his wife.It starts off exceptionally well, with some really strong scenes, and some well written dialogue by Daniel Pyne, as well as a good sense of humour, which is sadly non-existent for most of the second half, but the first 45 minutes or so are well crafted, and purely entertaining. The Middle act however like I mentioned earlier suffers from abrupt pacing, predictability and clichés, a great film would not have a merely passable middle like 'Fracture does, and for it to continue being intriguing, it relies on its cast momentarily which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it show's weakness in the story which should be captivating.The Supporting performances are pretty good however, Rosamund Pike play's Nikki Gardner, a high up member at a law firm, and she is romantically involved with Gosling's character and they have some solid scenes together, there romance is rather good and never feels forced, also good is David Strathairn as the DA of the law firm and Billy Burke who play's L.T Rob Nunally, the detective who was secretly sleeping with Crawford's wife, but was unknowing that Jennifer's husband was indeed Ted Crawford, as he had never seen him before, nor did he know Jennifer's last name. Burke is very angry, during this, consistently gets violent toward Crawford, and loses his credibility with the force during a revelation in court, his performance here is very good, and I believed he was angry and loved Jennifer.Also featuring are Embeth Davidtz as Jennifer Crawford and Cliff Curtis as Detective Flores, Rob's partner, both are pretty good. Another positive is Hoblit's direction, it's never unfocused, and rather adequate, along with some good jokes, involving Gosling's character being dressed in a tuxedo in court, in which the judge says "Thank you 007", an amusing, well timed joke and a sequence where Gosling's character is walking around a party and heads to the bar, only he is spoken to by Pike's character who says "I've seen you walking around in circles, you're like a shark circling, if you stop, you die". A fairly funny line, and an equally well written piece of dialogue.There were a few flaws though, like a scene just after the opening that creates disbelief, within this scene Hopkins character walks into his house, whilst his wife is with another man out by the pool, and blatantly appears in plain sight, and yet neither of them notice him, something I find hard to believe considering they weren't exactly looking at the floor. Another is later on, a cliché of course, where the missing gun is found in an obvious place, like a locked draw, and you sit there thinking, the police never thought to check there? And during that moment predictability reared in its head, apparently Rob's gun was switched with Crawford's after he shot his wife, something I expected from the very start, I was just anticipating when they were going to showcase that moment, and there's a fair amount of these moments here, in other words there's clichés aplenty.However this is a good film, because the ending has sustainability and surprise, not the revelation before the end, but the very last five minutes or so where Hopkins character boasts about the 'Double Jeopardy' law, and thinks he's won, only Gosling, with a smug look on his face tells him, he was never tried for murder, only attempted, and that that law does not apply to attempted murder. then comes the knockout where Gosling says the only thing keeping you out of prison was the bullet stuck inside your wife's head, they could not get to it, while she was alive, so when you pulled the plug on her, you pretty much just handed us proof, and enough evidence to lock you up for what will now be seen as murder, and not attempted murder after your decision to pull the plug on her, Hopkins tells him to get the f**k out of his house, and upon leaving, the police have heard everything, and are waiting to collect Hopkins, which left me satisfied, as I was not predicting this impressive outcome, one that makes sense too, in a smart, innovative way. Fracture is a good, fairly competent thriller with strong performances and solid chemistry between its two leads, Gosling and Hopkins.
