Fracture (2007 film)

Infobox Film
name = Fracture

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caption = Promotional poster
director = Gregory Hoblit
producer = Charles Weinstock
writer = Glenn Gers
Daniel Pyne
narrator =
starring = Ryan Gosling
Anthony Hopkins
David Strathairn
Rosamund Pike
Embeth Davidtz
music = Jeff Danna
Mychael Danna
cinematography = Kramer Morgenthau
editing = David Rosenbloom
distributor = New Line Cinema Castle Rock Entertainment
released = flagicon|United States April 20, 2007
runtime =
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.fracturemovie.com
amg_id = 1:345081
imdb_id = 0488120

"Fracture" is a 2007 legal/crime suspense film from both New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment, directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.

Plot

Theodore "Ted" Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), a wealthy and talented structural engineer, discovers his wife Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz) is having an affair with police detective Rob Nunally (Billy Burke). Crawford proceeds to shoot his wife, seriously wounding her and he immediately confesses the crime to Nunally on the scene. However, at his arraignment, Crawford retracts his confession.

He then engages in a battle of wits with rising star deputy district attorney William "Willy" Beachum (Ryan Gosling), who considers this an open-and-shut matter and agrees to go to trial. Beachum is busy making preparations for his transition from criminal law to corporate attorney for "Wooton & Simms", a well-known firm, and begins a romantic relationship with his future boss, Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike).

At the trial, Crawford acts as his own attorney, which serves as a key vehicle for the plot of the movie—matching up against a star prosecutor as a supposedly untrained litigant. Crawford reveals that the arresting officer (Nunally) was having an affair with his wife and was also present during his interrogation. His confession is ruled to be inadmissible as evidence, as it was fruit of the poisonous tree. Beachum discovers that Crawford's handgun was not used to shoot his wife, because it had never been fired and did not match the shell casings at the murder scene. Since the house was under surveillance the entire time from the shooting to Crawford's arrest, the police are baffled.

Beachum is tempted by Nunally's scheme to plant false evidence to implicate Crawford, but decides against it at the last minute. With no new evidence to present to the jury, Beachum is forced to concede the trial and Crawford is acquitted. The disgraced Nunally commits suicide with his own gun outside the courtroom.

Beachum's future with the prestigious firm is in tatters. With the case closed, he obsessively continues to search for evidence. He repeatedly visits the comatose Jennifer in the hospital, hoping she will wake up. But at Crawford's request, a restraining order is issued forbidding Beachum to visit the patient. Realizing that Crawford's plan is to dispose of the only eyewitness to the crime, Beachum goes to great lengths to get a court order to keep Jennifer on life support. Nikki refuses to help him and they end their relationship. Beachum arrives too late and Crawford orders the hospital staff to take Jennifer off life support, allowing her to die.

A mix-up of cellphones leads Beachum to realize that both Nunally and Crawford used the same gun. He figures out that before the crime, Crawford switched his gun with Nunally's identical Glock 21 in a hotel room where Jennifer and Nunally secretly met. Crawford shot his wife with Nunally's gun, whereupon the detective arrived on the scene carrying Crawford's gun. While Nunally lingered over Jennifer, trying to revive her, Crawford reloaded Nunally's gun and placed it back where Nunally had left it, while at the same time taking back his original gun. Distracted by the sight of Jennifer's body, Nunally did not notice the guns being switched back. When Crawford appears back in the room brandishing his own gun, Nunally tackles and beats him up before Crawford is arrested, at which point Nunally unwittingly holsters his own gun, the murder weapon, and lets Crawford's unused one to be taken as evidence.

Beachum confronts Crawford with his new evidence. Since she died, the bullet lodged in Jennifer's head can now be retrieved and matched with Nunally's gun. Beachum tricks Crawford into confessing, knowing that Crawford thinks he is protected under the double jeopardy clause. However, Beachum reveals that by allowing his wife to die, Crawford can now be prosecuted for murder, having previously been tried merely for attempted murder. If he had not pulled Jennifer off life support, he could have been protected by the double jeopardy clause. Crawford is arrested by the waiting police.

The film ends with a new trial about to begin. This time, the defendant is surrounded by attorneys.

Title

The film's title refers to Crawford's belief that all things in life are vulnerable and possess the potential to fall apart. Crawford's job as an aeronautical engineer requires him to scour aviation wreckage for the smallest evidence of failure. At one point in the film, he relates his ability to easily find minute flaws in eggs while working at a hatchery. He indicates to Beachum that if one looks close enough, everything has a weak spot that renders it capable of breaking. Beachum's weak spot, Crawford determines, is the attorney's strong motivation to win all of his criminal cases. This is reflected in the films tag-line: "If you look close enough, you'll find everyone has a weak spot."

Cast

Production

This is the first New Line Cinema/Castle Rock Entertainment collaboration since the mid-90s before both companies were bought by Ted Turner.

External links

* [http://www.fracturemovie.com Official "Fracture" site]
*imdb title|id=0488120|title=Fracture
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fracture/ Fracture at RottenTomatoes.com]