The problem with something as perfectly realised as Columbo is that when people remake it they're making a rod for their own back. In keeping with the theme of Fracture I offer into evidence, er, Fracture - a Columbo episode in all but name in which Anthony Hopkins takes on the mantle of many before him as the intelligent but arrogant affluent would-be murderer who, in a opening 20 minutes that could have been extracted from almost any Peter Falk outing, plods around, putting the finishing touches to his plan before the carefully thought out execution. Hopkins, an aeronautical engineer and self-made man of means, punishes his wife for having affair with a bullet to the brain. Rough justice you might think and at this point it would be Falk's cue to awkwardly meander into Hopkin's abode, establish his guilt in anything between 5 and 50 seconds and then spend the rest of the movie unravelling the killer's many mistakes before presenting them to him in time for the end credits.
Whether Falk was unavailable is never explained, not even a note to say that the lieutenant in Europe seeing relatives. Instead at the point where the entertaining bout of class war fare would commence we meet self-inflated (not literally you understand), cock sure prosecutor Ryan Gosling. Ryan's so full of himself he should be registering as morbidly obese but in the event we find him ready to accept a new high salaried job. With a signed confession from Hopkins his final case with his public office firm should be open and shut. In case we're bored with his ego and the inevitable pride before a fall elephant trap into which Gosling is walking, head in the clouds - there's pretty Rosamund Pike to look at. She's Gosling's new boss elect and she's ready and willing and show him the parts of the law that he can't read about in the public library. So hes arrogant, slow talking, as charismatic as top soil and just as interesting to look at but thank goodness, hes a man of humble origins and as such this sets up the dynamic familiar to fans of Falk whereby the two can clash is a suitably dramatic fashion - one the debonair socialite, the other aspirational and determined to wipe the $250,000 a year smile off Lecter's crumpled face.
This isn't quite as promising as it sounds because enjoyable though Fracture is, there's precious few surprises. That's because unlike its televisual progenitor that pretends to show you everything but keeps its best cards hidden for the final reveal, this one gives you too much information too early and thus saps any suspense from the remaining running time. We're never as impressed by Hopkins plan as he is because we've got a fairly good idea of what hes done long before the dim witted Gosling. Perhaps its savings the best for last you're left to wonder and like the glass eyed template, there is of course a twist which will wrong foot the homicidal mastermind but once again, not far from the finish, the screenwriter wrong foots himself and tips the audience off so that when Gosling delivers the final blow, we've been aware of it for the previous 15 minutes. That, as Hitchcock would have said, is bad technique but thats not to write off Fracture because its a breezy, occasionally absorbing courtroom potboiler. Hopkins has a lot of fun toying with the runtish Gosling like a kitten with a toy mouse and the interplay between the two is entertainingly soiled with testosterone. Its that banter and the look on Hopkins face when the hole in his plot is revealed to him that stays with you, long after the implausible contrivances and the gaping Falk shaped gap in the narrative has faded in the mind faster than the blood from Mrs Hopkins face. If Gosling had just had the guts to say "just one more thing sir" it'd have been marvelous. Instead just, er, worth a shot. If you know what I mean.
Whether Falk was unavailable is never explained, not even a note to say that the lieutenant in Europe seeing relatives. Instead at the point where the entertaining bout of class war fare would commence we meet self-inflated (not literally you understand), cock sure prosecutor Ryan Gosling. Ryan's so full of himself he should be registering as morbidly obese but in the event we find him ready to accept a new high salaried job. With a signed confession from Hopkins his final case with his public office firm should be open and shut. In case we're bored with his ego and the inevitable pride before a fall elephant trap into which Gosling is walking, head in the clouds - there's pretty Rosamund Pike to look at. She's Gosling's new boss elect and she's ready and willing and show him the parts of the law that he can't read about in the public library. So hes arrogant, slow talking, as charismatic as top soil and just as interesting to look at but thank goodness, hes a man of humble origins and as such this sets up the dynamic familiar to fans of Falk whereby the two can clash is a suitably dramatic fashion - one the debonair socialite, the other aspirational and determined to wipe the $250,000 a year smile off Lecter's crumpled face.
This isn't quite as promising as it sounds because enjoyable though Fracture is, there's precious few surprises. That's because unlike its televisual progenitor that pretends to show you everything but keeps its best cards hidden for the final reveal, this one gives you too much information too early and thus saps any suspense from the remaining running time. We're never as impressed by Hopkins plan as he is because we've got a fairly good idea of what hes done long before the dim witted Gosling. Perhaps its savings the best for last you're left to wonder and like the glass eyed template, there is of course a twist which will wrong foot the homicidal mastermind but once again, not far from the finish, the screenwriter wrong foots himself and tips the audience off so that when Gosling delivers the final blow, we've been aware of it for the previous 15 minutes. That, as Hitchcock would have said, is bad technique but thats not to write off Fracture because its a breezy, occasionally absorbing courtroom potboiler. Hopkins has a lot of fun toying with the runtish Gosling like a kitten with a toy mouse and the interplay between the two is entertainingly soiled with testosterone. Its that banter and the look on Hopkins face when the hole in his plot is revealed to him that stays with you, long after the implausible contrivances and the gaping Falk shaped gap in the narrative has faded in the mind faster than the blood from Mrs Hopkins face. If Gosling had just had the guts to say "just one more thing sir" it'd have been marvelous. Instead just, er, worth a shot. If you know what I mean.