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A Year of Movies Round 5 - Fracture

Raising Heel

Raising Heel

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Aug 31, 2008
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A van down by the river
OOTB Picker: @TarHeelNation11
Movie: Fracture
Year: 2007
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn
Run Time: 1h 53m

Alright, I've updated the schedule to remove @coolwaterunc and bump @BillyL to the end of the rotation. @TarHeelNation11 is up next despite his lackluster participation so far (**coughs**). I'll update the OP with all the details and a link to the movie once THN makes his pick.

Round 1 (02/18/18) --- @Raising Heel (Memento - 77.8 avg rating)
Round 2 (03/04/18) --- @heelz2345 (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - 75.4 avg rating)
Round 3 (03/18/18) --- @TarHeelMark (The Hateful Eight - 79.0 avg rating)
Round 4 (04/01/18) --- @tarheel0910 (V for Vendetta - 81.1 avg rating)
Round 5 (04/15/18) --- @TarHeelNation11
Round 6 (04/29/18) --- @grillheel
Round 7 (05/13/18) --- @strummingram
Round 8 (05/27/18) --- @coryfly
Round 9 (06/10/18) --- @toophly1124
Round 10 (06/24/18) --- @BillyL
----------------------------------------------------------------
Round 11 (07/08/18) --- @Raising Heel
Round 12 (07/22/18) --- @heelz2345
Round 13 (08/05/18) --- @TarHeelMark
Round 14 (08/19/18) --- @tarheel0910
Round 15 (09/02/18) --- @TarHeelNation11
Round 16 (09/16/18) --- @grillheel
Round 17 (09/30/18) --- @strummingram
Round 18 (10/14/18) --- @coryfly
Round 19 (10/28/18) --- @toophly1124
Round 20 (11/11/18) --- @BillyL
 
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Fracture -- available on Netflix. It's a film starring two actors you probably know well, but it's probably a film you haven't seen. Hope you enjoy.
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
Fracture -- available on Netflix. It's a film starring two actors you probably know well, but it's probably a film you haven't seen. Hope you enjoy.
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First one of this I hadn’t seen before, but I do like those two actors and a few of the others I saw on the IMDB cast list, so I’m looking forward to it
 
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Well, I'm stunned. I have seen this one before, but it's been a couple of years so I'll have to watch it again before commenting.
 
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I've seen it. It's pretty good. Now that I know the plot twists, I'm not sure if it will be as good to me though.
 
Not sure if I've seen it. Read the preview. I hope whoever killed his wife bangs the other dude's wife. I'll watch it at some point. I have to finish up Mr. Mercedes and watch tonight's episode of The Terror first though. I am a fan of the cast though so I'm sure it's solid.
 
Here is my review, there may be spoilers, but we were all supposed to watch it, so whatever.

Ok, so first question for @TarHeelNation11 is: did you pick this movie because the director’s name is so close to Hobbit? ;)

The standout performance for me is Gosling. I’ve become a bigger fan of his in the last 18 months or so (he was rightly praised in La La Land, but check out The Nice Guys, he is terrific in that), and it was nice to see him in some earlier work where he is developing some of those skills that he has demonstrated more in the past few years. Hopkins is a great actor of course, but there were some inconsistencies in his performance for me (mainly his accent which seemed to alternate between Irish and American). I was pleasantly surprised to see Rosamund Pike, who I enjoyed, but I felt her plot line was somewhat superfluous to the story.

To expand on that, I didn’t think Gosling needed the “new job” as motivation for his overconfidence at the beginning, they could have easily just had him be an overconfident successful lawyer and that be all the ego needed. Then he and Rosamund could have been in a more “stable” (read: longer) relationship, which makes her betrayal at the end more devestating for Gosling because he thought there was something more real and it turned out she only was attracted to his success. I think they tried to do this, but it could have been done a little better. As it is, it was sort of a distraction from the more interesting story of Hopkins v. Gosling, but it could have been a great supplement.

I also thought if they had showed us less of Hopkins and his actions at the start, it would have made it more suspenseful for the rest of the movie because I’m watching that scene thinking “he’s planned everything out, he knows what he’s doing, he is just toying with everyone” and kept that thought process the whole time, but if we only see the information that Gosling has at the start, that Hopkins has shot his wife and confessed, then we find out the information as the character does and you aren’t just waiting for Gosling to figure out pieces that we already know. An example they did well was the murder weapon. It was hidden from the viewer (though somewhat hinted at) and so the reveal made sense.

Overall, I liked it and thought it had some compelling moments and performances, but there were some things I just thought they could have done better to truly elevate it, so I’ll give it a 73.
 
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@heelz2345 I'm surprised you're just now coming around on Gosling. I think he's excellent at portraying a variety of roles.

I will wait closer to the deadline for others to chime in before I give my review. I'm glad you liked it a decent amount.

BTW @heelz2345 speaking of Gosling, have you ever seen Blue Valentine?
 
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TarHeelNation11 said:
@heelz2345 I'm surprised you're just now coming around on Gosling. I think he's excellent at portraying a variety of roles.

I will wait closer to the deadline for others to chime in before I give my review. I'm glad you liked it a decent amount.

BTW @heelz2345 speaking of Gosling, have you ever seen Blue Valentine?
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Well I wouldn’t say “just coming around,” I had liked him in stuff before (Drive, Crazy Stupid Love) but he had done a number of indies that I haven’t had the chance to see yet (including Blue Valentine, which is on the list) but his recent stretch of Big Short, La La Land, Nice Guys, and Blade Runner 2049 had been really diverse and highly enjoyable so he’s been on a hot streak that I’ve enjoyed and has made me want to catch some that I’ve missed over the years
 
I had forgotten I’ve watched this before. I couldn’t remember all of the twists but it came back to me throughout the movie. Anyway this is more of my type of movie. I love cat and mouse games. Hopkins and Gosling were both great IMO. Under 2 hours is always a plus as well. 75.
 
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Since this damn rain won't stop and I've been stuck inside, I decided to watch this movie a couple nights ago.

Anthony Hopkins is probably best known for his role as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, and his performance here reminded me a bit of that character: brilliant, calculating, sadistic, etc. I thought the movie did a good job demonstrating these traits in unusual ways via his job as a structural engineer, the rolling ball sculpture he built, and the story about inspecting eggs as a child.

I liked Gosling's performance as well and feel like he maximized the limitations of a somewhat cliche character. The young, brash, up-and-coming hotshot prosecutor with a 97% conviction rate. There was great tension in the scenes that included Hopkins and Gosling and I thought the movie built fantastic suspense through their interactions.

Some of the plot was implausible. His wife's lover just *happened* to be a hostage negotiator, the gunshot only left her in a coma -- not dead -- because they needed her alive for the final scenes, and what kind of moron sleeps with his new boss days before starting a dream job. Despite all that, I like that the crime and the reveal were straightforward. Too many crime thrillers try to be clever or complex and end up falling flat instead.

After awarding bonus points for the lovely Rosamund Pike and a point deduction for only getting the bad guy on a technicality, I'll give it 74 shreds.
 
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I basically concur with the views presented already about Fracture. As I had previously stated, I had watched it a couple of years ago, but I watched it again for the purposes of this thread.

I would rate Fracture as a pretty good psychological thriller. The performances of Gosling and Hopkins, as previously stated, are outstanding. The interactions between the two are particularly intense and the best part of the movie, IMO. When Hopkins calls Gosling “Willie” with that Lectoresque menace in his voice, it’s enough to make you shiver. Alas, other comparisons to Silence would suffer, again IMO, because the story and suspense don’t come close to reaching the level of Silence. I too thought the “love interest “ part of the story was kind of unnecessary, except the appearances by Ms. Pike were still welcome.

Overall, I found Fracture to be interesting and entertaining. I’ll give it 72/100.
 
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Glad y'all enjoyed it. I've watched half, gonna watch the other half tonight or tomorrow and give my official rating.

toophly1124 said:
“My Dick is good”
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"I don't know the uh.... technical legal word for it."
"Well... describe it to me."
"uh... fukking the witness."

ETA: Not sure if I said this before, but I've seen it already. But it's been several years, so I've enjoyed the rewatch.
 
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Has anyone seen the movie The Greatest Showman? My sister said it was great. It's playing at the dollar theater we have here and I was thinking of taking my kids to see it. My older son loves musicals (ghey) but I don't think my 6 year old would want to do it. Can @heelz2345 give me a quick review.

*sorry for derailing the thread but I figured this was a better option than starting a thread about a movie none of y'all have seen.
 
gunslingerdick said:
Has anyone seen the movie The Greatest Showman? My sister said it was great. It's playing at the dollar theater we have here and I was thinking of taking my kids to see it. My older son loves musicals (ghey) but I don't think my 6 year old would want to do it. Can @heelz2345 give me a quick review.

*sorry for derailing the thread but I figured this was a better option than starting a thread about a movie none of y'all have seen.
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I did see it. It's fun, the songs are all good (lots of big flashy group numbers), but it's kind of like P.T. Barnum himself in that it wants you to be wowed by the spectacle and not necessarily look too deep below the surface. They also took some pretty severe liberties in regard to historical accuracy (not that a movie has to be 100% accurate, but this one invents major characters and plot points). It's entertaining, and it's got a lot of bright imagery that should keep the younger one's attention. It's worth checking out (especially at a dollar theater).
 
heelz2345 said:
I did see it. It's fun, the songs are all good (lots of big flashy group numbers), but it's kind of like P.T. Barnum himself in that it wants you to be wowed by the spectacle and not necessarily look too deep below the surface. They also took some pretty severe liberties in regard to historical accuracy (not that a movie has to be 100% accurate, but this one invents major characters and plot points). It's entertaining, and it's got a lot of bright imagery that should keep the younger one's attention. It's worth checking out (especially at a dollar theater).
Click to expand...

You are the most dependable poaster here at OOTB. Thank you.
 
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Almost forgot I was on the clock. Ok, after much thought and deliberation, I’ve decided to go with another thriller, Wind River. Let us know what you think.
 
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Raising Heel said:
Well this movie has gotten a whopping 4 votes: 72, 73, 74, and 75. LOL. I'll leave the voting open for anyone else who wants to chime in.
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Review: While it's far from a masterpiece, I feel that Fracture is really, really good film, carried by performances by Gosling and Hopkins. The included romance is kinda cheesy, but I do enjoy that the film maintains a dark, cold tone throughout the film. Lots of darkness in the shots, even in shots that are in the daylight. As mentioned, Gosling's performance is excellent (I freely admit I'm a huge Ryan Gosling fan, though). Yes, the young hotshot lawyer is an overplayed character, but Gosling plays it well. The interaction between Hopkins and Gosling makes the movie. I particularly love the "fukking the victim" scene. It's such a "woah" moment, and then the cop charges Hopkins (do I imagine it or does his gun go off when he tackles Hopkins but it's never addressed...?), and then he's escorted, and Gosling is just standing there, leaning on the witness stand, staring at Hopkins like "what the **** did you just do to me?" I just enjoy this film. Second viewing was just as good as the first.

Rating: 79
 
Oh, sorry. I watched it. Thought it was pretty solid. I would go with 73, though I know it is too late.
 
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