I know that it is too soon to have doubts, but that is what I am facing. I know comparison with others is not a constructive idea. However, it does help sometimes to bring awareness to oneself. I am talking about this YouTuber named Chris Stuckmann. He is a movie reviewer, and his critics are amazing- to the point. He reviews movies that are yet to be launched and, usually, gets the privilege to see them before the general public. He gets called for many movie screenings and sits alongside renowned journalists to watch the movies and review them. Now, that is what I call fulfilling the purpose of movie reviewing.

Contrasting to the purpose of the channel, I am sitting here and reviewing old movies, the point of which, sometimes, I have trouble seeing. Right when I was about to lose hope and call quits, Chris, reviewed an old movie from the 1900s. He did that cause he did not find many reviews on such movies. This was enough for me to get the confidence and be right back at what I love to do i.e ‘grading’ movies (and essays by profession). So this time, I have selected a movie from Christ’s list of overlooked movies. I have selected the movie called Fractured.

Here is the trailer:

Director: Gregory Hoblit (director of Primal fear, Equal Justice and Fallen)

Anthony Hopkins as Theodore Crawford (Ted)

Ryan Gosling as William Beachum (Willy)

Rosamund Pike as Nikki Gardner

In this movie, Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) plays a role of a criminal, similar, to the one he had previously played in the movie ‘Silence Of The Lamb’; A psychopathic, an emotionally disturbed and intellectually sharp killer. Acting opposite to him, Ryan Gosling plays a convincing character of a hardworking lawyer, William Beachum, who is caught in between jobs. On one side, he gets an opportunity to take a step ahead in his career, and on the other, he gets pulled in by a challenging case in his current job. William (Willy), who has a history of successful cases, gets arrogant and overconfidence, and become careless about Ted’s case. Ultimately, resulting in building pressure in his current job as well as risks of losing the other job with a better opportunity, that he had worked so hard to get.

This movie was shot and directed well. Personally, I loved the opening credits. I loved the crystal balls rolling through the well-designed case and the name of the credits being highlighted through the rolling crystal balls; it was mesmerizing. Note: you need to see it, to know what I exactly mean.

I agree with Chris when he says that the plot is clearly laid down initially in the movie. In other words, the imbalance in the storyline is created by the early climax (the crime scene), which is placed in the movie deliberately and statically by the director and played out by Ted. This imbalance, by the way, was symbolized in the intro credits in an exceptionally impressive manner. After the climax, all that was left in the movie was the power struggle between the structure that was created by the accused Theodore (Ted) and the already existing structure i.e law and its defender, William Beachum (Willy).

The pressure buildup, the power struggle and the interplay between characters, especially, between Willy and Ted was well portrayed. However, I felt that a few depicted relationships were unnecessary. Like, the relationship between Willy and his new boss played by Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike. It felt like the director added their relationship only to add an element of romance in the movie- it served no other purpose.

As the climax was dealt with in the beginning, in the remaining quarter of the movie, the director breaks the sequence of narration by showing a change in the power dynamics between Ted and Willy. He does that not only by showing the interplay of dialogues and actions but also through symbolism, which adds to the visual value. After Ted gets released from the jail and comes back home, he tries to roll the crystal ball through the wired case again, as he had done initially in the movie. But, this time, it falls off from the wired track. This little shot symbolizes the approaching change of power dynamics between the main characters. Now, this time, Ted gets overconfident and thinks that he is above the law, but things change when Willy finds pieces of evidence against him.

This movie is not about what happened to the victim but about, how the victim was provided justice, or at least, attempted as the victim dies at the beginning of the movie.

This movie has flawless performance, direction, and narration. Yes, I agree with Christ’s review about it being one of an amazing movie that was overlooked during its release. So, if you are in a mood for an interesting and intricately presented movie, you should give this movie a watch.

Now, comment in the section below about your experiences with self-doubt and what do you do to rise above it? And also, I would like to know your views regarding this movie. Did you like it?

Stay tuned to Movie Anatomie for more such interesting movie reviews.

Love and believe yourself!

Writer: Deepika Bhaduri

About: Movie Anatomie