Fracture (2007 film)
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| Fracture | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Gregory Hoblit |
| Produced by | Charles Weinstock |
| Written by | Glenn Gers Daniel Pyne |
| Starring | Ryan Gosling Anthony Hopkins David Strathairn Rosamund Pike Embeth Davidtz |
| Music by | Jeff Danna Mychael Danna |
| Cinematography | Kramer Morgenthau |
| Editing by | David Rosenbloom |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema Castle Rock Entertainment |
| Release date(s) |  April 20, 2007 |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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.
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[edit] 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 a well-known firm and begins a romantic relationship with his future boss, Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike).
At the trial, Crawford, acting as his own attorney, 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. 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 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 use 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 real gun, Nunally tackles and beats him up before Crawford is arrested, at which point Nunally unwittingly holsters his own gun, the murder weapon, and let Crawford's unused one to be taken as evidence.
Beachum confronts Crawford with his new evidence. Since her death 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.
[edit] 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."
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Anthony Hopkins | Theodore "Ted" Crawford |
| Ryan Gosling | William "Willy" Beachum |
| David Strathairn | District Attorney Joe Lobruto |
| Rosamund Pike | Nikki Gardner |
| Embeth Davidtz | Jennifer Crawford |
| Billy Burke | Rob Nunally |
| Cliff Curtis | Detective Flores |
| Fiona Shaw | Judge Robinson |
| Bob Gunton | Judge Frank Gardner |
| Josh Stamberg | Norman Foster |
| Xander Berkeley | Judge Moran |
| Zoe Kazan | Mona |
[edit] Production
This is the first New Line Cinema/Castle Rock Entertainment collaboration since the mid-90s before both companies were bought by Ted Turner.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The poem that Willy Beachum reads to Jennifer Crawford is Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss.
- In the background of Beachum's office, case files with the name "Bonaventura" can be seen. This is the last name of the property master.
- When Willy Beachum is in his office, the boxes behind his desk are labeled "People .vs. Morgenthau" - Kramer Morgenthau was the cinematographer for the film. He is also related to a prominent, real prosecutor: Robert Morgenthau.
- The house scenes were shot at The Sherman estate in California.
- Crawford frequently calls Beachum "old sport", a popular saying of Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
- The rolling marble kinetic models appearing in the film were designed by artist Mark Bischof
