FractureMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Fracture."

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Avg. Critic Score: 68 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 90
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    This hugely entertaining thriller is what's needed to banish a winter-long case of movie blues. Read full review

  • 83
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Fracture is working on us, playing us, but that's its pleasure. It makes overwrought manipulation seem more than a basic instinct. Read full review

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Just because a movie is freakin' preposterous doesn't mean it can't be diabolical fun. Case in point: Fracture. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    What audiences want when they go to a suspense thriller. Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    It's a provocative game that plays out with intelligence and wit. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    The movie entertains, but it's a shallow entertainment where you have no rooting interest in the outcome. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    The screenwriters, Daniel Pyne and Glenn Gers, hit the customary thriller notes with a touch of humor, and the director, Gregory Hoblit (who worked similar terrain in "Primal Fear"), arranges those notes into a catchy, insistent rhythm. Read full review

  • 70
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Crust

    It boils down to experience's arrogance, intellect and wealth versus youth's cockiness, resilience and hard work, and the actors appear to have a good time playing the game. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Justin Chang

    An absorbing legal thriller that can't help but taste like exquisitely reheated leftovers. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    The good part about this okay, but way less than great, thriller is that you won't notice how cheesy it is until the heartburn from the popcorn has eased. In these jaded times, that's a bargain. Read full review

View more reviews for Fracture on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Cat-and-mouse thriller isn't meant for kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this legal thriller includes a lot of dialogue about legal and moral matters, which means it's not really for kids (and it probably won't interest most of them anyway). It begins with a brutal murder (the bloody-faced body is visible repeatedly); a character shoots himself (it's off-screen, but his bloody head and crumpled body are visible); and another is tackled by police (he struggles before being pressed to the floor). The film opens with very close, very dark shots of their a couple having sex; their affair inspires violent jealousy. Characters drink at parties and swear (language includes several uses of "f--k" and many other curses).
  • Families can talk about how the movie depicts its wealthy villain. Does it rely on Anthony Hopkins' performances in other movies to flesh out his character? How does actors' previous work influence how audiences react to them? Families can also discuss the appeal of legal/courtroom thrillers. How realistically do they represent the U.S. justice system? Why do so many of them have tidy endings? Is that true of real life courtroom cases?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Man tries to kill his wife and fool the legal system; young lawyer struggles with corruption but eventually makes the right choice.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Man shoots a woman in the face: Viewers see the shot, then the movie cuts to her falling and her bloody body on the floor (this image is repeated in flashbacks). The killer drags a bloody body across the floor, leaving a smear; man shoots himself off screen, but his bloody head is visible several times (in the present and in flashbacks); in a drawn-out scene, doctors "pull the plug" on a comatose patient; man is tackled by police, his face pressed into the floor.
  • sex false3 Sex: Credits sequence shows a sex act in extreme, shadowed close-up (making it hard to decipher); a woman has an affair; talk of intercourse in a courtroom setting; man says his wife/kids left him because he had an affair; post-sex scene in bedroom (man and woman get dressed); repeated joke about a private investigator named "Dick" has innuendo; some crude language ("He's trying on the dress, he's sniffing the panties," "put your fingers up [the] skirt" of a dead woman, etc.).
  • language false5 Language: Frequent uses of "f--k," as well as other language, like "a--hole," "hell," "s--t," "ass," "goddamn," "screwed," and "bastards."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Mac laptops, cars (BMW, Porsche), L.A.'s Hotel Miramar.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some drinking at parties.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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