Genre: Mystery and Thriller/ Psychological thriller
Director: Brad Anderson
Screenwriter: Alan McElroy
Cast: Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe, Lucy Capri, Adjoa Andoh, Stephen Tobolowsky, Lauren Cochrane, Shane Dean, Chris Sigurdson
Distributor: Netflix
Duration: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Ray Monroe (Sam Worthington) is a recovering alcoholic and is struggling with his marriage with Joanne (Lily Rabe). One day they are returning from a Thanksgiving dinner at Joanne’s home. She is clearly upset about how Ray behaved at her place. Then there is an accident that makes them rush to the nearest hospital available. Unfortunately, Ray’s wife and 6-year-old injured daughter Peri (Lucy Capri) disappear from the emergency room and he becomes convinced that the hospital is hiding something. Finding his family means facing the truth.
Review:
I first watched Fractured in the middle of 2020 and recently found out that the director of this movie is Brad Anderson. This time he released another adrenaline-filled psychological thriller that will keep the audience guessing until the very end. He has proven himself skilled in making thrillers as his past films were such a masterpiece. I have been watching thriller movies since I was a kid and the one that I will never forget is The Call (2013) which tells about a 911 operator who gets a call from a kidnapped teen and turns the girl into a partner to help save her life.
Screenwriter Alan McElroy, who has extensive genre credits, has come across a reasonably nightmarish scenario, one to which any father can certainly relate. A seemingly-kind doctor (played by Stephen Tobolowsky) decides to send Peri for a CAT scan and requires Ray to spend hours in the waiting room. You will have a good idea of what it is like sitting through the movie if you have ever anxiously stayed in a hospital waiting room.
In this movie, Sam Worthington plays a man desperately looking for his wife and daughter who went missing in a hospital. The ambiguity of the main character—whether he is innocent or sinister—makes you want to reach the next scene immediately. Worthington delivers an effectively tense performance, making the audience feel sympathy for his character’s plight and at the same time, providing hints that Ray may indeed not be a completely innocent protagonist. He delivers his career-best performance in Fractured.
One of the best things about this movie is that it is so relatable. We all have a certain degree in our lives when we do not want to face harsh realities. It is because human’s first reaction to traumatic experiences or events is denial. When we talk about trauma, first we have to understand how our bodies respond to fear. It is the familiar fight or flight: we either stay to confront what is making us anxious, or we flee in an attempt to avoid or outrun danger.
I realised that Brad Anderson sometimes gives overused titles for his movies, for example, Fractured (2019) and The Call (2013). It sometimes confuses people whenever I recommend them to watch the movies. Despite the overused title of the movie, it teaches us a lot, especially the ones who have a personal interest in psychology or mental health. You will know the true essence of this movie only by watching it from the beginning until the end, as the common saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.”
For those of you who love thrillers with some family background story, you will not regret watching this incredible movie. It is one of the movies that blew my mind with the plot and how it ends. The moral value is like no other thriller movies out there. You need to focus on every single detail of the movie because that is how a mystery can be solved. Every second you spend sitting in front of your laptop or smart TV is worth watching. It will also be a lot of fun if you watch it with your friends or family and feel the adrenaline together. Overall, the plot and end of the movie are quite interesting which makes the movie satisfying and memorable.
Written by:
Eldy Rusli
Universitas Tarumanagara
AMSA Indonesia