Fracture (2007)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Deleted Scenes Alternate Ending Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	108:43
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gregory Hoblit
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Anthony Hopkins Ryan Gosling David Strathairn Rosamund Pike Embeth Davidtz Billy Burke Cliff Curtis Fiona Shaw Bob Gunton Josh Stamberg Xander Berkeley Zoe Kazan Judith Scott
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Jeff Danna Mychael Danna

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Apple anyone?
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Fracture is a recent film which didn't make much of an impact at the local box office when released earlier this year, despite boasting a cast including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, Rosamund Pike and David Strathairn. It made some impact at the US Box office, taking around $40 million. It is a fairly straight forward genre flick in the court room thriller mould. It certainly has some things going for it but overall is a bit of a mixed bag.

    The story involves aeronautical engineer, Ted Crawford (Hopkins) who discovers that he wife is cheating on him with local police detective, Lt. Nunally (Billy Burke). With obvious calculated cunning he shoots his wife in their home. He makes no attempt to escape and when the police arrive (coincidentally lead by Lt. Nunally) he confesses verbally and hands over the gun. Crawford also signs a written confession later at the police station. Nunally did not know that the woman he was having an affair with was Crawford's wife until he sees the body. Meanwhile a young hotshot Deputy District Attorney, William Beachum (Ryan Gosling) has decided to leave the DA's office for a much better paid job at a big law firm. As his last case, he is assigned the job of prosecuting Crawford in what is seemingly an open and shut case. Things start getting difficult, however, when Crawford pleads not guilty and decides to represent himself. A subplot involving Beachum and his relationship with the woman who is to be his new boss at the big law firm, Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike) also plays out.

    On the plus side, this film features a wonderful performance from Hopkins which has shades of Hannibal Lecter, wonderful atmosphere and cinematography, excellent music by Jeff & Mychael Danna, one excellent scene when Crawford first meets Beachum and a tight and engrossing first twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the other 80 minutes of the run time meander somewhat and the romantic subplot is unbelievable and boring, adding nothing to the film. Things come back together somewhat at the end for quite a decent finish although it is obvious that the director was not sure about the ending as two other versions are contained within the extras. To my mind the main reason why the second section of the film flags is the absence of Hopkins from significant screen time.

    Fans of Hopkins and lovers of court room thrillers will certainly get something out of this film and it is worth a rental from that perspective.

Video

    The video quality is very good bordering on excellent.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some occasional minor MPEG grain such as at 86:02 in the background. The shadow detail was excellent.

    The colour was excellent with no issues to report.

    The only artefact I noticed was some very minor aliasing such as on the BMW at 17:30.

    There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired. They are clear, easy to read and very close to the spoken word.

    The layer change occurs at 60:00 and caused a slight pause.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains two audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this film by Jeff & Mychael Danna is great with touches of menace, melancholy and loads of atmosphere.

    The surround speakers were well used for a film of this type which is mostly dialogue driven. There was lots of atmosphere coming from the rear along with some specific effects such as helicopters 

    The subwoofer is also well used considering the type of film. It added bass to the music, tension sounds and a variety of appropriate thuds.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Not much here, I'm afraid.

Menu

    The menu design is very good featuring the machines which Crawford obviously built in the movie, along with an intro and a nice motif for the cursor.

Deleted/Alternate Scenes (32:29)

    There is a lot of material here featuring two 11-minute alternate endings, which are interesting but not hugely different. There are also some wisely removed sex scenes which would have just made the romantic subplot even sillier.

Theatrical Trailer (2:09)

    Quality trailer which makes the film seem better than it is.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Spanish subtitles

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    On this basis lets just call it a draw.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    Only one real extra, some deleted scenes.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall