Fractured focuses on a man named Ray Monroe, played by Sam Worthington, who’s on a road trip for Thanksgiving along with his wife Joanne, played by Lily Rabe, and his daughter Peri, played by Lucy Capri. At a rest stop, Peri and Ray fall into a construction site, where Peri’s arm is broken as a result. The family rush to the hospital, and Joanne accompanies Peri and the doctor, played by Stephen Tobolowsky, during Peri’s examination. Ray falls asleep while waiting, and wakes up only for the entire hospital staff to say Ray came in alone and deny that Peri and Joanne were ever admitted.
And so, director Brad Anderson plays this film very much like the classic Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes. The entirety of the film is spent with the audience wondering if Ray is crazy or if everyone is working against him to make it appear so. And this is an intriguing enough mystery that viewers will want solved. The ways in which Ray goes to prove that Peri and Joanne were really with him, only to be countered by what’s either a perfectly sound explanation or a well-executed cover-up are done fairly well, and audiences will want to know whether it’s one or the other.
But the mystery itself is all this movie has going for it, and once that mystery is revealed, there isn’t ever a reason to revisit this movie. There is unfortunately nothing else that’s really all that good about Fractured, other than just wanting the mystery itself solved. It’s an event-based movie that hones in so much on the event itself that it drowns everything else that makes a movie great or holding up to multiple viewings.
The film first and foremost lacks any real tension. The film acts more as a straightforward thriller with some horror elements, but really should have leaned in much more into its clear horror influences. Anderson’s direction is competent enough, and it’s clear he’s going for something atmospheric - something he is definitely capable of, as seen in films like Transsiberian and The Machinist - yet the full extent of the stakes involved are rarely ever felt.
The film takes place almost entirely in a hospital. Most of the time, the viewer is meant to feel stuck there. This was the last place Joanne and Peri were seen, and the fact that the staff is so adamant that they weren’t forces Ray to stay there until he can get to the bottom of things, and it’s unsettling just how many people seem to be in on this. But rather going for a close up, claustrophobic feel in its direction, the film attempts to convey the suspense by portraying the entire hospital staff as constantly and outwardly angry and aggressive.
Even from when Ray walks in, there really isn’t any subtlety to anyone working in the building. While the family is waiting in the lobby of the hospital, the front clerk is immediately getting testy with him, while the clerk asking about his background information is borderline ready to yell at him for no reason. Moments even as small as these are accompanied by really loud, harsh visual and audio cues. This movie goes out of its way to let the audience know when they’re supposed to feel frightened or on the edge of their seat, rather than organically creating that atmosphere through direction and cinematography to earn that.
And even in terms of characterization, it’s hard to really care for any of these people, outside maybe Peri, with Lucy Capri’s acting being some of the more effective performances here. However since this movie’s focused on her disappearance, she’s only seen sparingly and thus never leaves as much of an impact as she could have. The same goes for Stephen Tobolowsky, who is by far the most talented actor of the main cast, but is also highly underused here, who’s often regulated to the background during group scenes in his brief appearances.
Ray himself is the only actor who has a consistent major presence in this film and he is far from a compelling protagonist. There’s little that’s ever learned about him, outside of some random facts brought up for the first time halfway through the movie just to be used against him when it’s convenient for the screenplay. He yells a lot, repeats himself a lot, and spends most of this movie grunting and groaning, asking for his family. He’s a character who’s strictly defined by this one event, and the movie relies on the viewer’s investment in that event as a means to care for him, which feels manipulative. What doesn’t help matters much here is that Sam Worthington’s performance is often painful to watch, as he tries growling his way through every scene, to the point where he often comes off as silly, rather than believable.
Fractured has one somewhat intriguing mystery going for it, but that’s about all that’s keeping it from being totally unwatchable. And even then, that may not be enough for most viewers, which is understandable. It follows an uninteresting character who’s portrayed by an actor who gives a poor performance that’s often difficult to watch. And when it wants to scare or thrill the audience, it attempts to manipulate them into feeling a certain way, with obvious visual and audio cues that come off as aggravating rather than suspenseful. What could have been a brilliant Hitchcockian homage instead turns into a mystery that for most, may not be worth solving.
Recommendation: Avoid It
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