REEL CRITIC:’Fracture’ has neat parrying of leads

Director Gregory Hoblit has crafted a first-rate thriller, a wonderful suspense story titled “Fracture.”

The plot is intricate and very clever and although the body of the story outshines the solution, by the time we get there, it doesn’t matter. By then, we have been treated to marvelous acting, especially the neat parrying between the two leads and white-knuckle suspense. I really enjoyed this movie.

I have to admit that my first reaction to seeing Anthony Hopkins in the lead, playing once again an overly clever villain, gave me a sense of unpleasant déjà vu, and I prayed that I wouldn’t have to suffer through any more of that worn out schtick. But not to worry. This role finds Hopkins in a fresh and clever place, a fine use of his talents as the venomous cuckold carrying out an airtight revenge plot. But perhaps not as airtight as we are first led to believe.

Ryan Gosling, who found fame in his breakout role in last year’s well-received “Half Nelson,” is once again brilliant as Willy Beachum, an overly ambitious young prosecutor who is assigned to what appears to be an open-and-shut case. Young Willy is on his way to a new career in corporate law and, on his way out, he agrees to help his old boss clear the books. Not so fast there, Mr. Prosecutor.

Thanks to Hopkins’ evil connivings in his role as victim/husband, the open-and-shut case quickly unravels into an unholy mess and we have a neat yet tangled thriller on our hands.

There are a couple of things about this film, however, that I could have done without. The police detective (Billy Burke) who first arrives at the death scene is also the victim’s lover. The cop is exposed in this rather awkward disgrace during the course of the trial, made all the more extravagant by the fact that Hopkins’ character (Ted Crawford) is representing himself as counsel.

The other troubling matter is the role of Rosamund Pike as Nikki Gardner, the slinky, cool beauty who is way too foxy to be Gosling’s new boss at the corporate law office. Nobody gets that lucky anywhere but in Hollywood. Pike’s role is more of a distraction than a plot vehicle and adds virtually nothing to the story.

After the credits ran, I sat in the lobby for a moment or two to make a few notes while all of this was still fresh in my mind. I began to puzzle over the title, “Fracture,” and the relationship it had with the story. It occurred to me that both Hopkins and Gosling, in all of their clever shenanigans, were above all, looking for a fracture in the façade of the other. A chink in the armor so to speak, and when one was found, it was exploited and widened into a chasm.

Isn’t that what Bogey did all those years ago? I guess some things just never change.

Rated R for a few choice words and adult situations, “Fracture” has a running time of 113 minutes.