Fracture - 5

A thriller in which an old engineer kills his wife for cheating on him, then a young out-the-door public prosecutor has to try to convict him. Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) is a perfectionist, so when he decides to punish his wife's infidelity he plans it down to the last drop of blood. Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) has worked hard in the district attorney's office and is now looking to enter corporate law, he takes Crawford's case because it looks open and closed. Beachum likes winning and it drives him crazy as this simple case soon unravels- Crawford's intent. Unlike the genre suggests, there are not big turning points that changes everything, rather the film finally settles on a cheap trick so that the viewer can walk away thinking justice has won. The film had potential, but turns out to be a weak story that plays on Gosling's rise as a good actor (he was nominated for his work in Half Nelson, and liked for his work in The Notebook), and the use of "lifestyle porn" (a focus on the stuff of upper class society) to get butts in the seats. The previews for this film allude to a Silence of the Lambs type of experience, it couldn't be further from it.