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Fracture
Promotional poster
Directed by	Gregory Hoblit
Produced by	Charles Weinstock
Written by	Glenn Gers Daniel Pyne
Starring	Ryan Gosling Anthony Hopkins David Strathairn Rosamund Pike Embeth Davidtz
Music by	Jeff Danna Mychael Danna
Cinematography	Kramer Morgenthau
Editing by	David Rosenbloom
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	April 20, 2007
Country	USA
Language	English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Fracture is a 2007 legal/crime suspense film directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.

Theodore "Ted" Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), a meticulous-minded aeronautical engineer, discovers his wife Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz) is having an affair with police detective Rob Nunally (Billy Burke). Crawford then proceeds to shoot his wife, and immediately confesses to the crime. However, at his arraignment Crawford retracts his confession. He then engages in a battle of wits with rising star deputy district attorney William "Willy" Beachum (Ryan Gosling), who considers this an open-and-shut matter. Beachum, however, quickly discovers that his case is falling apart as Crawford outwits him at every turn.

In the opening stages of the trial, Crawford reveals that the officer who arrested him is the same officer with whom his wife was having an affair (Nunally). Crawford taunts the detective into attacking him in the courtroom. As a result, his confession is ruled to be inadmissable as evidence. Beachum then discovers that Crawford's handgun, a Glock 21, was not used to shoot his wife, because it had never been fired before. The police are baffled, and with no other evidence to present to the jury, Beachum is forced to concede the trial and Crawford is acquitted.

Beachum becomes obsessed with the case. Earlier he was taken off the case but at his request he was allowed to continue, but at risk of damaging his career. Now that the case is closed he continues to search for evidence, and repeatedly visits Jennifer who is in coma in the hospital, hoping to get evidence from her. At Crawford's request a restraining order is issued forbidding Beachum to visit Jennifer. Finally Crawford orders the hospital staff to take her off life support and allows her to die.

Beachum eventually figures out that before the crime, in a hotel where Jennifer and Nunally were together, Crawford switched his handgun with Nunally's identical Glock 21. After Crawford shot Jennifer with Nunally's gun, when Nunally arrived (carrying Crawford's Glock) and Jennifer was assumed to be held hostage, Crawford and Nunally agreed to lay down their guns to negotiate. Nunally, horrified to learn that Jennifer has been shot, did not notice Crawford as he switched the guns back again, so that Crawford had his original never-fired Glock, and Nunally had his original Glock that had killed Jennifer. After arresting Crawford, Nunally holstered his gun, which left Crawford's unfired gun to be taken as evidence.

Beachum confronts Crawford with his conclusions, and Crawford confesses. He taunts Beachum, believing that he is immune to prosecution under the double jeopardy clause. However, Beachum reveals that by allowing his wife to die, Crawford's crime has been elevated to murder (rather than attempted murder) and is therefore no longer subject to the rules of double jeopardy. Crawford is arrested again, and Beachum attempts to prosecute him a second time. It is never revealed if he is found guilty or not, but heavily implied he is, given that the murder weapon has been found, and the bullet retrieved from his wife's head, along with the new confession. Also the fact that, in the first trial he decided to represent himself, but in the second he hires a team of lawyers shows he thinks he will lose the case.

The film's title refers to Crawford's belief that all things in life are vulnerable and possess the potential to fall apart. At one point in the film, Crawford indicates to Beachum that if one looks close enough, everything has a weak spot that renders it capable of breaking. Beachum's weak spot, Crawford determines, is the attorney's strong motivation to win all of his criminal cases. In fact, the film's tag line is: "If you look close enough, you'll find everyone has a weak spot."

This is the first New Line Cinema/Castle Rock Entertainment collaboration since the mid-90s before both companies were bought by Ted Turner. budget - 36 million

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The poem that Willy Beachum reads to Jennifer Crawford is Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss.
• In the background of Beachum's office, case files with the name "Bonaventura" can be seen. This is the last name of the property master.
• In the beginning Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) is seen driving a Porsche Carrera GT
• The house scenes were shot at The Sherman estate in California.

• Official Fracture site
• Fracture at the Internet Movie Database
• Fracture at RottenTomatoes.com