Movie Review by Neils Hesse
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike
Director: Gregory Hoblit
A fracture is commonly defined as a break in the bone or cartilage, usually as the end result of some form of trauma. Imagine for a moment a fracture of the human mind; what could possibly make someone snap? In this day and age it could be anything from a bad day at work to a cheating lover or indeed a loveless relationship, maybe even something as apparently trivial as a bruised ego.
Our protagonists in this tale both snap for very different reasons that ultimately thrust them into a thrilling legal game of cat and mouse, as one of them ends up on trial for attempted murder with the other one prosecuting him. Alas how can you prosecute a defendant when the only weapon you have at the scene of the deed has never actually been shot before and as for the arresting officer, well to quote the defendant “I don’t know what the legal term is but what do you call it when the man who arrested you has been sleeping with your wife!” To say that the plot thickens at this point would be putting it lightly, but suffice to say that everything that seemed like an open and shut case, just slides into a perfectly designed mechanism by the wily defendant, with no obvious fault, but that is for you to see for yourself.
Hopkins and Gosling are on top form with Hopkins showing some old Hannibal the cannibal glee and wit in his performance, nasty yes, but great fun none-the-less! Gosling steps up to the plate, and keeps his own with a very laid back yet charismatic portrayal of a man at war with his morals and his ego.
Thoroughly entertaining thriller that might just make you question your own morals – definitely worth the trip to that screen on the hill!
