Fracture (2007)

Brief: After discovering his wife (Embeth Davidtz)'s affair, Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) shoots her. As a DDA on his way out, Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) takes the open-and-shut case as a courtesy. Naturally, the case turns out to be not as clear cut as he thought, putting his new job and his relationships in jeopardy.

You guys are really dropping the ball. I went to see a movie where a lady gets shot in the face, and there appeared to be no children in the theatre. Don't you want your children to see a woman get shot in the face?

Truth be told, there was only one reason to make the journey to the cinema last night: The Gosling. Once upon a time, Gosling and I had a very special relationship where we used to see each other five times a week (everyday after school), but now I don't get to see him as often. As such, I like to make a special effort for him.

As always, he more than delivers. Gosling's a natural on screen, an actor who can exhibit that rare combination of charisma and talent. He simply smolders up there, and in those embers you find it impossible to contradict him. Is he really a Southern lawyer* who wears a gold horseshoe ring and goes about quietly seducing his new boss (Rosamund Pike)? He is today.

*Can you be a young star and not play a lawyer? What is with that requirement?

It's wonderful to Gosling and Hopkins tear into each other with relish. I don't always understand Hopkins' career moves (look at me! I can play a sociopath!), but I like anything that puts that mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He practically glows when he sits across the table from Gosling. What a delight for the audience.

Of course, that delight is tempered by the train wreck known as the script. Co-writers Daniel Pyne and Glenn Gers secretly, in their heart of hearts, think you are very, very stupid. Mind you, they start out treating you as relatively intelligent and attentive, slowly meting out clues as the movie slightly slowly goes on. Yet, when it comes time for the climax, they suddenly lose all faith in your ability to recall something that occurred as recently as three minutes earlier. Mind you, those flashbacks could have been the work of meddling producers, but I really have no way of knowing that. Besides, I have a feeling that they thought up that ridiculously unnecessary coda all on their own.

Gregory Hoblit's direction gets the job done. There was nothing extraordinary or spectacular about it, and I doubt that it takes a lot to get good performances out of Gosling or Hopkins. I do, however, think that it takes a special kind of director to quietly investigate the bonds that form between men (he also directed Frequency), and I think that Hoblit has knack for it.

Watching can be fun, especially with Gosling and Hopkins in nearly every frame and the fabulous David Strathairn in a supporting role. If you can just let the plot's failings pass you by, you are in for a pretty good ride. B-