Fracture

"You look closely enough; you'll find that everything has a weak spot where it can break, sooner or later.”

The story is of a wealthy aeronautical engineer Theodore "Ted" Crawford (Anthony Hopkins). The movie starts with Ted discovering that his wife Jennifer is having an affair with Robert Nunally (Billy Burke) who is a police detective. That very night, Ted shoots Jennifer seriously wounding her. The servants and others suspect that someone has broken into the house and has taken the couple hostage. They call the police. Nunally arrive at the scene alien to the fact that this is Jennifer’s home. Suspecting a hostage situation, he attempts to negotiate with the “hostage-taker” who tells Nunaly this is his house and confesses that that he has shot his wife.

The case falls on the shoulders of William Beachum (Ryan Gosling) – a well known lawyer and deputy district attorney. Assuming that this is a simple case, he takes this case up and goes to trial. Meanwhile, he also plans a shift from criminal law to corporate law. Hence winning this case is crucial for him.

Ted decides to defend himself in this case. Going against the advice of the judge and even the prosecution lawyer, Ted decides to be his own attorney. The case which earlier seemed be an open-and-shut case, now becomes a challenge for Beachum as Ted retracts from his statement at the beginning of the trial. Beachum confronts Ted in jail. Ted tells Beachum that “everything has a weak spot” and that he knows where Beachum’s weakness lies – he loves to win.

While in court, Ted reveals that Nunally was having an affair with Jennifer. The prosecution discovers that Jennifer (who is now in coma) was not shot from Ted’s gun. In fact, Ted’s gun had never fired a bullet.

The prosecution is now left with the responsibility of proving that Theodore Crawford had actually shot his wife even though they know it.

Every character, every shot, every word stated in the movie was true to the story.

The story breaks the conventional ways of portraying the positive and negative characters in the movie. There are a lot of traits we would normally attribute to a negative character; traits such as wife stealing, indecisiveness, falsifying evidence, etc. But these are traits that have been found associated with the lead characters. On the other hand, the Ted appears to be a very calm, composed, sure, tactful, organised and a disciplined person.

The camera and the music complement each other. The lights used to portray the character are meticulously planned. They have added immense depth to the qualities of the character and the substance of the ongoing scene.

Director Gregory Hoblit has done a commendable job. This movie deserves a 4.5/5. AmazinG.