Homage To Hitchcock Is A Masterful Thriller

Sun Herald

Sunday August 5, 2007

Rob Lowing

FRACTURE

Rated: M

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, Rosamund Pike.

Critic's warning: Vivid but carefully placed violence, and language.

Critic's rating: 8/10.

THERE are flashier, more provocative films opening this week but Fracture is the only one offering adults a return to cool (in all senses of the word) crime entertainment.

The story is essentially a two-hander and comes seemingly burdened with familiar characters: the rich, beyond-insane genius and the cocky legal puppy.

Bad casting would have made this courtroom confrontation a bore, but director Gregory Hoblit, who launched Edward Norton in Primal Fear, knows how to cast.

Adults will thoroughly enjoy Hopkins slyly, discreetly referencing his famous Silence Of The Lambs villain. Equally impressive Gosling follows his Oscar-nominated Half Nelson performance with a portrayal that finally takes the cocky yuppie role beyond Tom Cruise's unconvincing, hand-wringing idealism.

It's always a reviewing crime to give too much away. Let's just say that brilliant, billionaire aeronautical designer Ted Crawford (Hopkins) shoots his cheating wife (Embeth Davidtz) in an apparent fit of rage.

It is an open and shut case, which is why exiting public prosecutor Willy Beachum (Gosling) agrees to take it.

Willy has a 97 per cent conviction rate, achieved partly through talent, partly through (as his boss David Strathairn reminds him) off-loading his losing cases.

Willy has just scored a job with a prestigious private law firm. He wants to wrap up the case in one court appearance. To his shock, he discovers the case is more complex than he thought.

With its malevolent use of light and shadows in urban spaces, especially houses, and the appearance of a luminous, ambiguous blonde (Pride & Prejudice English rose Pike in tough form), Fracture is obviously a homage to crime master Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitch would have loved the emphasis on dialogue as weaponry: "I didn't work hard to stay where I belong," notes former poor country boy Willy, while Ted taunts him about his "Okie" roots much the same way Hannibal Lecter taunted Clarice Starling in The Silence Of The Lambs. "Even the broken clock is right twice a day," sneers Ted in one of many juicy put-downs.

The women are not the main players here - this is a two-man show. However, unlike in a depressingly increasing number of Hollywood movies, they have the heft and presence of Hitchcock's dames. Even Fiona Shaw corrals her usual Black Dahlia histrionics and scores as an exasperated judge.

The film has Hitch's relentlessly precise placement. A subplot involving a vengeful cop is never overplayed and a discreet soundtrack begins with light piano notes before gradually moving into deeper pulselike drums. Violence and swearing are sparingly used for maximum shock.

Fracture occasionally even tops the master: a face reflected in a pool of blood; a Los Angeles mansion so lavish that it has its own meadow. And those initial classic close-ups are destabilised by insistent, unnerving, hand-held camera shots.

All of which delivers a movie that never falters in its near two-hour running time. Adults can sit back and relax: you are in the hands of masters.

© 2007 Sun Herald

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