FRACTURE

This legal thriller from 2007 came along a few years after the heyday for this sort of thing, which might explain why it passed under my radar at the time.

It’s a highly entertaining piece of hokum: it has a neat (if ridiculous) plot, it's competently directed, and it has a high quality cast headed up by Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.

Hopkins plays a rich guy with a younger wife who is cheating on him with a police detective. Hopkins kills his wife in a way that inevitably means he is charged with her murder, but it's all part of a mad scheme he has to get away with it, and at the same time inflict maximum pain on the detective.

Gosling plays a cocky (but brilliant, of course) young lawyer who is on the point of leaving the DA’s office for a lucrative job with a top legal firm, working for Rosamund Pike. Naturally a romance ensues between them. 

Gosling takes on the job of prosecuting Hopkins before he leaves the DA’s office because he thinks it will be a walk in the park. Big mistake!

Watching Hopkins’ plan unfold and then seeing how an increasingly obsessed Gosling manages to bring him to justice made for an undemanding but enjoyable couple of hours viewing. 

RATING: ✓ If You've Nothing Better To Do