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Fracture
Castle Rock Entertainment / New Line Cinema


6.5

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 43 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language and some violent content

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike, Embeth Davidtz, Billy Burke, Cliff Curtis, and Fiona Shaw

When a meticulous structural engineer (Hokins) is found innocent of the attempted murder of his wife (Davidtz), the young district attorney (Gosling) who is prosecuting him becomes a crusader for justice. Fracture is packed with twists and turns that weave in and out of the courtroom as the pair try to outwit each other. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Daniel Pyne (also story) Glenn Gers
DIRECTED BY:	Gregory Hoblit
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 14, 2007 Theatrical: April 20, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	112 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

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 it's entertaining.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This hugely entertaining thriller is what's needed to banish a winter-long case of movie blues.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Fracture is working on us, playing us, but that's its pleasure. It makes overwrought manipulation seem more than a basic instinct.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Sneaks up on you. At first, it plays like it might be another in a long line of dullish legal thrillers. But then, in its modest, grown-up way, it keeps getting better and better.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The main interest here is the juxtaposing of Gosling's Method acting with Hopkins's more classical style, a spectacle even more mesmerizing than the settings.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Gruesomely engaging.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Just because a movie is freakin' preposterous doesn't mean it can't be diabolical fun. Case in point: Fracture.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Effective dialogue doesn't necessarily mean witty dialogue, but wit certainly helps, and you tend not to get much of it in a low-key legal thriller. Fracture is an exception.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The best thing about Fracture is the way in which it defies genre cliches and turns all Hopkins' mannerisms into assets.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's a provocative game that plays out with intelligence and wit.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Not since Lecter has a role been this well suited to Hopkins, whose intelligence and pristine formality as an actor often make him seem alien--or worse, an incorrigible ham.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The delight here is in the sheer workmanship. The performances, the direction, the plotting, they're just nicely engineered, usually with an eye to that most underrated of virtues -- refined simplicity.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The kind of thriller we've seen a thousand times before. Fortunately, nobody told leads, Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins, both of whom devoutly believe they're in another, better movie.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

What audiences want when they go to a suspense thriller.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A stylish thriller so highly strung it zings, gives us Hopkins, an actor at the top of his game, in material that's only middling.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The chief pleasure in the picture (set in Los Angeles) is in watching Hopkins spin off another of his nutty self-possessed intellectual criminals--this time it's Hannibal Lecter lite.

Variety Justin Chang

An absorbing legal thriller that can't help but taste like exquisitely reheated leftovers.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The screenwriters, Daniel Pyne and Glenn Gers, hit the customary thriller notes with a touch of humor, and the director, Gregory Hoblit (who worked similar terrain in "Primal Fear"), arranges those notes into a catchy, insistent rhythm.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

It boils down to experience's arrogance, intellect and wealth versus youth's cockiness, resilience and hard work, and the actors appear to have a good time playing the game.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

What makes Fracture hum is the way Hopkins bares his teeth, twitches his nostrils, and trains his shiny pinprick Lecter eyes on his co-star.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The movie entertains, but it's a shallow entertainment where you have no rooting interest in the outcome.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

In the dark of the theatre Fracture keeps it together – mainly through the sheer will of Hopkins and Gosling.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

There's more than a trace of James Dean in Gosling, except that he's a rebel with a cause.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This is a slickly entertaining package, beautifully photographed on well-chosen locations with an unerring sense of pace by Gregory Hoblit.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Those who still relish the sight of Anthony Hopkins portraying an evil criminal mastermind will get the most out of Fracture, which is not so much a whodunit -- we see Hopkins' character putting a bullet in his wife's head in the movie's first few minutes -- as a howdunnit.

Empire Ross Bennett

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.

Slate Dana Stevens

Anyone who can credibly threaten to steal a movie from Anthony Hopkins has seriously got it going on. Fracture may be remembered as the movie that brought Ryan Gosling into the mainstream.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

You needn’t actually see Fracture to know that if the charge is acting that winks, these two are guilty.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A momentary diversion.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The picture is clever, somber, quiet: There's just no reason it has to be as deadly boring as it is.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Fracture may be smarter than the majority of movies out there, but it's not half as clever as it thinks it is.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The good part about this okay, but way less than great, thriller is that you won't notice how cheesy it is until the heartburn from the popcorn has eased. In these jaded times, that's a bargain.

Time Richard Schickel

It renders passion dispassionate and turns murder into a kind of fashion statement, something we observe without really caring about.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 43 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tony B. gave it a6:
Extremely well-acted legal thriller with some unfortunate plot holes. Ryan Gosling more than holds his own up against one of our finest actors, Anthony Hopkins.

Frank H. gave it a6:
Generally as an attorney I am able to appreciate literary license and understand that a film can not 100% reflect the realities of the law. But I do expect some basis in reality. The legal errors were so glaring that I was unable to enjoy the movie. Just because a defendant waives a preliminary hearing doesn't mean that the trial is going to start the next day. When a defendant files a motion the prosecution has an opportunity to respond, in writing. Judges don't make rulings in chambers, etc. My guess that a police investigator who saw this movie would have their own complaints about police procedure. That being said, Hopkins is still an interesting actor.

Tom J. gave it a9:
Great acting, very engaging.

Dean D. gave it a2:
Plot spoiler warning! As a lawyer, I can say there were two major flaws in the plot. First, the notion of double jeopardy is nonsense. Crawford was never tried and acquitted, the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Hence, they could be refiled if new evidence came to light. That said, being guilty of murder didn't make sense if he couldn't be charged with attempted murder. His wife died because the hospital turned off her respirator, which they were presumably entitled to do under the law, with his permission. How can that be murder if under the double jeopardy concept, he couldn't be charged again with shooting his wife? Doesn't compute. Aesthetically, I thought Willy was obnoxious and his "conversion" was laughable. And the affair of a gorgeous senior partner with an incoming jr. associate.......in your dreams.

C L gave it a7:
Reasonably well directed and written, but: Personally, I felt no sympathy for any of the "good guy" characters in this movie. First of all, lets start with Crawford's Wife; she is cheating on her husband, who we are provided with no evidence to the contrary that he is anything else but a loving spouse. She is cold, untrustworthy and generally came across as a deceptive woman. The cop, who comes across less as a deranged lover than as a poorly disciplined, incompetent, also cheating cop was also difficult to muster any kind of sympathy for. The lawyer, again, annoys me and I'm guessing many other people, because he is a stuck up, cocky young lawyer who seems to think he is smarter than he really is. Then there is Crawford himself. [***SPOILER***] I wanted him to prevail, I wanted to see him outwit this cocky young lawyer in a case where he used his perfectly justifiable, though not condoned, human emotions and careful, meticulous intelligence to get away with murdering his cheating wife and her also cheating lover. He was the most complex character and had the most justifiable feelings out of any of the characters in the film. Other than this, I liked it.

Colin C gave it a7:
While a lot of the elements felt familiar, it had enough new twists I liked the style of film and enjoyed it, even if it did feel like I'd seen the ending played out more than once in different TV lawyer shows.

Elizabeth P. gave it a7:
Very entertaining, great story, I just wished they elaborated the ending a little more.

Fracture Castle Rock Entertainment / New Line Cinema

Fracture
Castle Rock Entertainment / New Line Cinema