If John Grisham wrote The Silence of the Lambs, this is what it would look like.
For Hannibal Lecter fans yearning to see Sir Anthony Hopkins reprise his signature character, the courtroom thriller Fracture is probably the closest they're gonna get. Hopkins stars as Ted Crawford, a wealthy aeronautical engineer who, upon confirming suspicions of his wife's infidelity, arrives home early from work one day and puts a bullet in her head. When the cops arrive, Crawford calmly admits to the crime and is hauled away in cuffs.
Later on at the District Attorney's Office, the seemingly slam-dunk case is assigned to cocky southern boy Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), an ambitious prosecutor who has all but packed his bags for a fancy new private-practice gig. Despite having already confessed to the crime, Crawford elects to plead not guilty and represent himself, initiating a high-stakes courtroom duel between the precocious prosecutor and the wily murder suspect.
Soon it becomes apparent that Beachum grossly underestimated the crafty old killer, who proceeds to steadily dismantle what was thought to be an open-and-shut case. As more details emerge, what initially looked like a spontaneous crime of passion is revealed to be a rather ingenious plot to get away with murder.
Fracture boasts an entertaining -- if utterly implausible -- storyline and two highly enjoyable performances from its two lead actors. Watching the upstart Gosling spar with the veteran Hopkins is good fun, even if the two are surrounded primarily by mediocrity (with the exception of Good Night, and Good Luck Oscar nominee David Strathairn, who plays Gosling's boss).
Employing heavy doses of his Lechter routine, Hopkins is gleefully over-the-top as he continually baits and taunts his increasingly flummoxed adversary, a wry smile the only sign of his enjoyment at watching the young prosecutor unravel.
When Gosling and Hopkins don't share the screen, however, Fracture becomes little more than a big-budget episode of Law and Order. Unremarkable Rosamund Pike, tossed in to add some romance to the mix, amounts to little more than eye candy, while Billy Burke chronically overacts as perpetually distressed ex-lover of Crawford's comatose wife.
Ultimately, it's Gosling who makes Fracture a worthwhile watch, as he continues to display an impressive nack for eaking quality performances out of otherwise unexceptional material.
ReelzChannel Rating: 