Make sure you have your say at urbanmoms.ca! Have you seen Fracture yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments section below & be sure to rate the number of stars you would give to Fracture. Five Stars – Run, don’t walk, to the theatre. Four Stars – Worth seeing. Three Stars – Not bad. Two Stars – Marginal. One Star – Do not waste your time.
Don’t you just love those movies that challenge you to use your brain? Okay, sometimes it is nice just to have a total escape where you can shut your brain down & just let the movie wash over you without worrying about which synapses are & aren’t firing. But those real thought-provoking movies that either challenge you to figure something out or even just to keep up with the storyline, they can be fabulous too. Maybe its because you can feel like you’ve given your brain a little 2-hour challenge or tune-up with very little effort on your part. Insert DVD in player. Press play. That’s pretty much it. But I think my fav part of a "thinking" movie is the discussions that you can have afterward with your fellow movie-watchers. One of my fondest movie memories is from when Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace came out in theatres. My hubby & I joined our equally-avid Star Wars friends at the theatre for the first showing & then we all sat around afterward for hours eating pie & dissecting every last minute of the movie & what it meant to the greater Star Wars universe. Oh, dear god, I just admitted that out loud! Anyway, my point was that we all got to enjoy each other’s take on the movie & we all gleaned different things from different parts. Now I will admit that The Phantom Menace is not your typical example of a "thinking" movie…but you get the idea (ya, I’m a total nerd).
Now On DVD
Fracture
Fracture is actually a very simple movie. Anthony Hopkins is Ted Crawford, an older man with a young wife. She just so happens to be having an affair. He kills her (this is not a spoiler, we know that he did it from the very beginning), but somehow seems to manage to get away with murder. On the other side is young Assistant DA Willy Beechum, played by Ryan Gosling, who is just biding his time before he can get fully settled into the big shot corporate lawyer position he has all lined up. Willy is driven almost to the point of madness because he can’t seem to convict Crawford, on a case that should be open-&-shut. What follows is a cat-&-mouse game between Hopkins’ & Gosling’s characters, where the roles seem to reverse themselves without notice.
I found Fracture to be a fairly solid "thinking" movie. You are never really wondering if he did it, but how he got away with it. That being said once you figure it out, you realize how simple it really was. I guess I just had the overwhelming feeling that this movie thought it was "smarter" than it actually was. It was sort of like watching a 2-hour episode of Law & Order. Very little character development, just enough to prevent you from turning off the movie, & once the case is done, so too is the movie. It was entertaining, & certainly had good performances from both Gosling & Hopkins. It just fell a little flat in the end to me.
This whole idea of a good "thinking" movie got me thinking (I know, I shouldn’t strain myself) about what the best "thinkers" have been. So it’s been a while since I did a Top Five & between my parents, hubby & myself we came up with some doozies (not all, obviously, made the final list).
Top Five "Thinking" Movies
5. Michael Clayton – I reviewed this movie back in the fall, & the more I think about it the more I love it. I love the fact that you start 3/4 of the way through the movie & work your way back, all the while thinking "how do we get from A to R?!?"
4. The Sixth Sense – Okay, so once you know the hook of this movie then you look at it through totally different eyes. But isn’t that the sign of a great "thinking" movie? You just need to re-watch it to catch all of those little signs you missed. And please let me know if you are one of the 5 people who figured out the twist ahead of time. It had me hook, line & sinker!
3. The Insider – This story of a tobacco-industry whistleblower, is loosely-based on a true story, & it had me reeling by the end. So many topics to discuss. Corrupt government. Corporate cover-ups. Character assasination. And how did Russell Crowe make himself look so horrid? Sorry, off-topic.
2. Memento – Okay, I have to admit that I haven’t actually seen this movie (I was desperately ill the night my hubby & friends watched it & I fell asleep 2 minutes in), but from everyone I have ever talked to it is unanimous that it certainly makes you think. I think this movie is either a "love it" or "hate it", there seems to be no gray area. My Hubby & Dad hated it. My Mom & friends loved it. If you’ve never seen it the basic idea is that you start at the end of the story & work your way back, because our main character (Guy Pearce) suffers from short-term memory loss. I really need to see it, because the dang movie already has me thinking about it…& I can’t remember why!
1. The Usual Suspects – For anyone who has seen this movie all I have to say is "Who is Keyser Soze?" If you haven’t, then what are you waiting for?!? It’s genius that you will be talking about for weeks afterward.
So what do you think? Did some of your fav "thinking" movies make my list? What are your fav "thinkers?" Do you prefer a "thinker" or an "escape" movie? Let us know what you think (couldn’t resist) in the comments section below.