Sometimes it’s good just to watch the film without overloading our minds after a busy day or week. That way, it would help miss the details that could reveal the whole film within one second. While it still did happen to me, I managed to enjoy watching Brad Anderson’s “Fractured”, even though I knew right from the start where it was headed.
“Fractured”, written by Alan B. McElroy, produced by Neal Edelstein, Mike Macari, and Paul Schiff and directed by Brad Anderson, follows Ray Monroe (Sam Worthington), a man who ends up at the Kirkbride Regional Hospital with his wife Joanne Monroe (Lily Rabe) after an ugly incident occurring to their 6-year-old daughter, Peri (Lucy Capri), who fractured her arm after the fall. After being taking downstairs for a CT scan, the family disappears, leaving the confused man anxious, lost and desperate as he embarks on a cat-and-mouse game with the hospital personnel he can’t easily trust.
It all starts when Ray drives a car with his wife and daughter. As they discuss their thanksgiving dinner, going over their marriage, their daughter sits in the back seat as a passive observer. After taking a short break, the girl falls, forcing the family to rush to the nearest hospital. However, the madness begins right then when all the nurses and doctors begin acting strangely. Hours after Joanne and Peri were taken away from him, the man loses his mind as he tries to track down the whereabouts of his family he has no intention to leave the hospital without. However, it becomes more difficult when doctors and security refuse to cooperate with him, presenting everything as if he made everything up. But Ray knows what he knows and won’t let them manipulate him or his mind and continues the search for his loved ones which he starts believing has lost them forever.
The film itself is a psychological thriller that offers a nail-biting atmosphere but sadly, did not quite work for me. It’s not because of the failure of the written screenplay, which was quite fine, but rather one particular scene right in the beginning that revealed at least to me what I am dealing with. While it might just be, there is no need to be worry about (in case if you figure it out as well), as everything else offered from that moment on is decent and entertaining. It has the ability to hold the viewer’s attention, and I was one of them. While the ending may not be too satisfactory for some, do not forget the writer cannot divide himself into billion of pieces to provide the most satisfying closure for you. However, the writer, Alan B. McElroy does the best he can to play with the story to create a suspenseful storyline that could earn the audience’s respect.
Overall, “Fractured” is too far from being perfect, but not as boring as you may think. It has good intentions and clear agenda and never misses it. Of course, it has some goofy scenes or the ones we hardly can believe. But the film alone is not about forcing us to believe what we see on the silver screen but to be a part of it as a participant who goes through the same nightmare Ray does. While I must admit what I just said is too difficult to achieve, the film plays its cards well to have what it has for you to admire in your own way. So do not worry about it sounding too clichéd as its worthwhile to be seen once, and if you wish, more than that if it exceeds your expectations.