Rating of
2/4
"Fracture" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/14/12
A brilliant engineer murders his wife in cold blood, immediately giving himself up and confessing. But against such a wily opponent, what seemed like an open and shut case proves to be a lot harder to prove than the prosecutor first suspected. Rather like the old Columbo format, Fracture begins with the murder and the rest of the story involves the police trying to prove the murderer's guilt, and Hopkins' commanding performance as the gleefully smug and arrogant killer is the main reason to watch the film. Because of this and the interesting premise, the opening act to Fracture is very strong indeed, but the film soon descends into documenting the ups and downs of a douchey lawyer and his over-privileged would-be girlfriend who are both very difficult to give a crap about. As things progress it gets more and more mundane and when the big twist turns out to be something I took to be blatantly obvious right from the outset the whole thing reveals itself to be yet another glossy but by the numbers Hollywood courtroom drama. Hopkins is really the only thing worth watching about this film which begins with a bang but ends with a half-hearted whimper.
