Tagline: If you look close enough, you’ll find everyone has a weak spot.
Fracture movie storyline. When Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) discovers that his beautiful younger wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), is having an affair, he plans her murder…the perfect murder. Among the cops arriving at the crime scene is hostage negotiator Detective Rob Nunally (Billy Burke), the only officer permitted entry to the house. Surprisingly, Crawford readily admits to shooting his wife, but Nunally is too stunned to pay close attention when he recognizes his lover, whose true identity he never knew, lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Although Jennifer was shot at point blank range, Nunally realizes she isn’t dead. Crawford is immediately arrested and arraigned after confessing – a seemingly slamdunk case for hot shot assistant district attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), who has one foot out the door of the District Attorney’s (David Strathairn) office on his way to a lucrative job in high-stakes corporate law. But nothing is as simple as it seems, including this case. Will the lure of power and a love affair with a sexy, ambitious attorney (Rosamund Pike) at his new firm overpower Willy’s fierce drive to win, or worse, quash his code of ethics? In a tense duel of intellect and strategy, Crawford and Willy both learn that a “fracture” can be found in every ostensibly perfect façade.
Fracture is a 2007 American-German legal drama film, starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling, and directed by Gregory Hoblit. It is the story of a man who shoots his unfaithful wife, placing her into a coma, and who then engages in a battle of wits with a young assistant district attorney. The film has a 72% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $91 million.
Fracture was released on April 20, 2007. It opened in 2,443 theaters in the United States and grossed $3,677,000 on its opening day and $11,014,657 during its opening weekend, ranking No. 2 with a per theater average of $4,508. During its second weekend, it dropped to No. 4 and grossed $6,814,714 – $2,789 per theater average. During its third weekend, it moved up to No. 3 and made $3,696,060 – $1,562 per theater average. Fracture went on to gross $39,015,018 in the United States and Canada and $52,339,197 overseas. In total, the film grossed $91,354,215 worldwide.
About the Production
The genesis of a seamless thriller is never simple. Its growth from inspiration to the page to production usually follows a long, circuitous route. Fracture is no different. “Thrillers are tough,” says producer Charles Weinstock. “And when they start with a nice twist, as ours does, they’re particularly tough – because at the end of the movie, you need to top that. We didn’t want to close with some witless car chase, or a fight to the death on an abandoned pier. Throughout, we tried to construct a story that was grounded in character, which is always the solution: keep your characters honest, and sooner or later they’ll give you the next twist.”
Fracture began its lengthy gestation at Castle Rock Entertainment, where Weinstock had an overall deal in place and was working with the studio’s head of production, Liz Glotzer. For years, Weinstock had wanted to do something with writer Daniel Pyne, and when they finally met, Pyne told him he had the beginnings of an idea. “Daniel said he wanted to make a movie about a guy who represents himself in court,” Weinstock says, “but with this catch – as a writer, he didn’t want to be in the courtroom much.”
Weinstock spent another six years working on the story and eventually the project picked up speed with the addition of screenwriter Glenn Gers, director Gregory Hoblit and New Line Cinema, and together with Weinstock they continued the painstaking process of refining the story through to production.
“I was attracted by the notion that Chuck Weinstock and Greg Hoblit intended to make a ‘courtroom thriller’ in which most of the fight between the antagonists is not in the actual courtroom,” says Gers.
“The hard work for me was getting out of the perfect crime because Dan Pyne made it a little too perfect,” Gers laughs, “and we had to protect that at all costs, even while working on character development and strengthening the plot. Dan’s triangle of Crawford, Jennifer and Nunally, the clever set up, the crime, this intense puzzle that starts the story – that’s what made me want to work on the film.
As luck would have it, Gers’ sister was working as a prosecutor in the Kansas City D.A.’s office when he began working on the project. A year later, life imitated art and she took a job in the private sector at a corporate law firm. Gers took the opportunity to use his sister as a reference guide, asking procedural questions and running story ideas by her.
“It was a strange little side light into Willy’s moral quandary,” says Gers, “so I probed to learn what it was like making the transition into the private sector. But Willy is so wrapped up and enthralled with getting what he’s always wanted in terms of this new job that he doesn’t notice Crawford, so Crawford takes advantage of that weakness and sets his trap.
Director Gregory Hoblit is well known for keeping the screenwriter within arm’s reach during production, and Gers was no exception, spending months on set with the cast and crew. “The script is the blueprint for the movie,” asserts Hoblit. “Once it gets on its feet in the hands of gifted actors, it becomes organic and takes on a life of its own. If the blueprint is good, you stick to its intentions pretty closely, making sure you hit every specific point.”
“This script is also a puzzle piece in terms of the emotional life of the characters,” Hoblit continues, “so we had to be very careful, yet still give the actors room to move. Glenn was great at understanding that. I don’t think going in he anticipated that a scene could take such a left or right turn, but he quickly realized the special things that can happen with a story with when you let the moments happen with good actors. Our blueprint was first rate.”
Hoblit read more than 100 scripts before agreeing to direct Fracture. “It was the surprises you don’t see coming,” he says when asked what made this script outshine the many others. “I knew this one was going to be fun and I knew what to do with it, how to make it,” he says succinctly.
Similar to Hoblit’s debut film, Primal Fear, the director likens Fracture to such smart murder mysteries as Jagged Edge and The Verdict, calling them “brainy popcorn thrillers.”
The characters jumped off the page into Hoblit’s consciousness, especially the scene in which Crawford and Willy first meet. Crawford has confessed to his wife’s murder, and Willy, feeling all the power of his position as an assistant district attorney, questions Crawford believing his case to be a neat slam dunk. “When I read that scene, I couldn’t wait to shoot it,” Hoblit acknowledges. “Everything else just radiated from the confrontation between them. Being able to shoot the creative dynamic of that sequence was probably the single most exciting day I’ve had in 25 years in this business.”
Anthony Hopkins portrays Ted Crawford, an engineer and scientist who specializes in fracture mechanics, analyzing aeronautical malfunctions and plane crashes. He prides himself on being able to spot even the smallest defect or weakness in any system, mechanical or otherwise.
It took only one read for Hopkins to sign onto the project. “It’s a smart, sophisticated, well-written script,” explains Hopkins. “You don’t get many of those today. Being asked to participate was a stroke of luck.”
But do not ask Hopkins about his character’s motivations – he’s quick to direct you elsewhere for an answer. “I’m not a film scholar, so I never analyze the ingredients of a good film. I never go into a character’s subtext,” he says. “Ask the writer for the reasons why someone does something. I just let it emerge.”
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Fracture (2007)
Directed by: Gregory Hoblit
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Billy Burke, Rosamund Pike, Valerie Dillman, Fiona Shaw, Josh Stamberg, Zoe Kazan, Judith Scott, Petrea Burchard
Screenplay by: Glenn Gers, Daniel Pyne
Production Design by: Paul Eads
Cinematography by: Kramer Morgenthau
Film Editing by: David Rosenbloom
Costume Design by: Elisabetta Beraldo
Set Decoration by: Nancy Nye
Art Direction by: Mindy Roffman
Music by: Jeff Danna, Mychael Danna
MPAA Rating: R for language and some violent content.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: April 20, 2007
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