'LAMBS' RETREAD LIKE REHEATED FAVAS AND A FLAT CHIANTI.

Byline: Glenn Whipp

Film Critic

Maybe you've seen the poster advertisements for "Fracture," the ones sporting a photo of a sinister-looking Anthony Hopkins and bearing the confessional inscription (or is it a boast?): "I Shot My Wife."

Given how much the movie trades on the memory of Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter character from "The Silence of the Lambs," maybe, for the sake of clarity, the ads should read: "I Shot My Wife - But I Didn't Eat Her."

"Fracture" is an OK thriller, enlivened by the interplay between Hopkins' beady-eyed, nostril-twitching villain and the prosecutor trying to "drive a stake" through his heart, interestingly underplayed by Ryan Gosling. So even as the movie lurches to its improbable and obvious "surprise" twist finale, its actors give you something to nibble on, though at times it feels like reheated fava beans washed down with a flat Chianti.

Given the whole "I Shot My Wife" promotional campaign, it's not giving anything away to reveal that wealthy L.A. aeronautics mover-and-shaker Ted Crawford (Hopkins) murders his much younger spouse (Embeth Davidtz) in the movie's opening minutes. She was having an affair, coincidentally (?) with the very LAPD detective (Billy Burke) who arrives first at the crime scene, not knowing that it's his lover lying comatose in the living room.

Crawford cheerfully confesses to the crime and waives his right to an attorney, wanting to represent himself. The case looks to be an open-and-shut affair, good news for prosecutor Willy Beachum (Gosling), who's leaving the D.A.'s office for a lucrative job with a private firm. (The movie's director, Gregory Hoblit, put in time with "L.A. Law" and infuses "Fracture" with the same slick sensibility.)

But the impish Crawford has several surprises in store for Willy, turning the cocky prosecutor into his own Clarice Starling. Watching the hammy Hopkins taunt the grounded Gosling makes "Fracture" fun, but it can't save the movie from itself. As the cat-and-mouse game develops, the filmmakers box themselves into a corner, and their solution - complete with Crawford taking the explanatory James Bond villain route - is just plain ridiculous.

The filmmakers may not be smarter than their lame finale 7/8 but Crawford is. Our last glimpse of him should show this criminal mastermind footloose and fancy-free - maybe even having an old friend for dinner.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

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FRACTURE - Two and one half stars

(R: language, violence.)

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling.

Director: Gregory Hoblit.

Running time: 1 hr. 53 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Anthony Hopkins does Hannibal Lecter with Ryan Gosling as his Clarice Starling in this OK thriller that is enlivened by the actors' interplay.

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Photo:

Ryan Gosling plays a young prosecutor trying to convict a confessed murderer (Anthony Hopkins) who wants to represent himself in "Fracture."