Fracture

Ryan Gosling steals the show in smart legal thriller

By Brett Buckalew | Metromix

April 20, 2007

Ryan Gosling's daring performance isn't the only reason to see the legal thriller "Fracture"—clever dialogue and refreshingly plausible plot twists are two others—but it's the best one.

Imagine Keanu Reeves' cocky lawyer from "The Devil's Advocate" crossed with Captain Jack Sparrow, and you'll get an idea of the inventiveness Gosling (recently Oscar nominated for "Half Nelson") brings to his role. He fully inhabits the part of Willy Beachum, an overly confident assistant district attorney whose 97 percent success rate at putting criminals away lands him a lucrative corporate-law gig.

Just before stepping into his swanky new job, Willy agrees to take on one last case for the city—that of Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins, "The Silence of the Lambs"), on trial for shooting his cheating wife. Armed with a confession from Crawford, Willy considers the case a slam dunk, but Crawford, an unexpectedly shrewd judge of character, tries to manipulate Willy's arrogance to secure an acquittal.

The film's cat-and-mouse game unfolds in an engagingly cerebral way, and a film couldn't ask for better adversaries than Hopkins and Gosling. Though he's not onscreen as much as the ad campaign suggests, the reliably chilling Hopkins adds a barely contained glee to Crawford that keeps the character from becoming a lazy Hannibal Lecter clone. The movie, however, belongs to Gosling, and he conveys Willy's self-absorption through odd touches (like massaging his feet in the middle of a scene) that make this characterization unique from other smarmy-lawyer portrayals.

It's too bad the otherwise witty, well-crafted film forces a moral center on Willy in the story's second half. Gosling creates an unforgettable asshole who would've remained engagingly entertaining right up to the end.