'If you look close enough, you'll find everyone has a weak spot'

'Fracture' (2007) by Gregory Hoblit, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.

Described as a psychological thriller, Fracture follows the prosecution of murderer Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) after he shot his wife. Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) is the nominated prosecution lawyer, who accepts what he views as a walk in the park, with a signed confession and weapon with prints. However, Ted has manipulated the legal system to the extreme, handing his own case without a defence lawyer, and tearing all evidence to shreds, making a mockery of Willy's 97% conviction rate, and therefore placing his new promotion in jeopardy.

So after watching this the first thing I went to do was to check the genre description on IMDB (yes, i know how sad that is) 'coz it just didn't seem all that thrillerisht. Whilst still containing trademark shadowy sequences, plot twists, police and murder, I felt that there was very little tension building, fear or suspense achieved. However despite this I did enjoy the film, which contains clever plot twists, (and great acting by Anthony Hopkins, who made me laugh out loud more than once) but found it very easy to predict and was disappointed at the realisation that I find CSI more scary! On reflection this could be because there was no audience connection to the main character, or that the killer doesn't actually seem all that menacing- and that we know exactly who he is.

However there are a few things I would like to take away from 'Fracture'. I especially liked the use of the marble mazes- a metaphor for the mechanical mindedness of Ted. They pose a mystery within the film- 'What the hell is that!?' (Willy) and are aesthetically pleasing to the audience, the attention to detail and clarity with which they are shown mirrors the attention to detail involved in the solving of the case, and their seeming serentity and solidity juxtaposes the fragility and high tempers of the case. This is something I would like to incorporate into our film, possibly using close-ups of the clock face impassive to the events surrounding it. Another thing I admired within 'Fracture' is the use of lighting- I felt that each scene was lit well using both visible lighting in the mise-en-scene and lighting off set, creating subtle moods for each scene and hinting at the characters' disposition, a small technical element that in my opinion made the film.