subject: 'fracture' Movie Review - An Anthony Hopkins Movie [print this page] "Fracture" with multi-award winning British actor, Anthony Hopkins, is a sharp, up-to-the-minute crime thriller that has you on the edge of your seat, as the plot unravels and the two focal characters commence what becomes a battle of wits which is not even arrested by the last turn at the end.
Hopkins plays Ted Crawford, a wealthy, polished L.A. business man and aeronautical engineer, set in L.A. where Crawford resides in a sleek, interior designed, ranch-style house with all the customary trappings of wealth, together with a six foot tall rolling ball art sculpture - the definitive wealthy man's toy with which Crawford is observed to occupy himself with right through the movie - setting the glass balls in motion, gradually rolling from the pinnacle of the structure and accumulating pace, delighting in their twisting journey from the top to the final stop at the base. Crawford built this precise device which shows as timely reminder of his exacting, careful character. Crawford"s good-looking, more youthful wife (Embeth Davidtz) is having an affair with police detective Lt. Rob Nunally (Billy Burke) and Crawford shoots her in the head in cold blood in their own home, then calmly and cunningly entraps her lover, who is summonsed to the flawlessly engineered crime scene.
Co-star Ryan Gosling, is Willy Beacham, the upwardly mobile lawyer who is requested to prosecute the case - Willy has a ninety seven% victory rate and takes this case, believing it to be a no brainer with a signed guilty statement from Crawford, until that is, Crawford pleads "not guilty" and opts to exercise his right to represent himself and the murder weapon unexplicably has vanished. Ambitious Willy Beacham has accepted an invitation to join a prestigious upstate law firm and wants no part in this case in the beginning - he loves to win - everybody has a "weak spot". Crawford starts to toy with Willy, much in the same manner as Hopkins did as Hannibal Lecter with Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) in "Silence of the Lambs" searching for a gap in Willy"s armour. Meanwhile Willy is becoming increasingly occupied in discovering the clue to this problem of the mislaid handgun and is annoyed that he is beginning to lose the case. The enjoyment of this movie is observing Hopkins carry out his teasing art, maintaining the aspect of tension alive as he observes his opponent squirm, as his case is slowly eroded. Willy is resolute to crack this one, as this is all that stands between him and his coming career, acting very like a youthful, more classy Columbo as he turns over over every minutiae of the case.
A superb performance by both Hopkins and Gosling, raising some humour at points, specifically in the courtroom scenes where Hopkins emerges successful as a litigator in person, unsettling the slick prosecutor Willy. The film"s success revolves around the profundity of the two characters, rather than the flawless murder and the double jeopardy factor. One of the best movies with Anthony Hopkins.
by: Juliette Morgan
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