“Fractured” can be a delight for the forever fans of “Shutter Island” and “The Machinist.” It is a kind of movie that gets you to exhaust your own mind solving the mystery while you watch the actors playing their part. Director Brad Anderson has made a bold attempt to choose a psychological theme rarely taken by other filmmakers. Ray Monroe (played by Sam Worthington), a man with a difficult past, and an unsettling present, finds himself afflicted with an alternate reality trauma following his young daughter’s accident at a construction site, which grasps his senses with paranoia and hallucinations that only get worse with time. Broadly, the film revolves around the idea that if left unhealed, how the wounds from our past can damage our future. The movie is also a narrative of the role of the male in protecting his family at all costs.
Traumatized with seeing his daughter Peri (Lucy Capri) die in a terrifying slip at a construction site, Ray, under a false reality trick played by his mind, imagines rushing her toward a hospital, where he is welcomed by an uneasy atmosphere, and strange behavior of the doctors and other staff who just wouldn’t take his daughter’s case on priority. When a dubious-acting doctor finally agrees to diagnose his daughter, he is quick to suggest a CT scan at a secluded part of the hospital to rule out the possibility of other injuries. Ray, a caring father and a loving husband, lets his wife Joanne (Lily Rabe) accompany Peri for the scan, having no clue that this would mark the end of his time with his family and the beginning of a harrowing episode.
“Fractured” is a film to which, typically, every viewer would be able to relate in some way. We all have been there. When nothing made sense. Where nothing seemed what was. When we doubted the reality. When nobody could be trusted. And Sam Worthington’s hard work to achieve that hyper-charged state of mind for the screen is praise-worthy.
Luci Capri, Lily Rabe, and Sam Worthington in “Fractured” (Koji Productions, 2019).
If someone can dare to take their head out of the story for a moment and observe the environments and other dynamics in the screen, they would come across a lot of reality checks. Overcrowded hospitals and extreme waiting times for diagnoses are a painful reality in a lot of scarcely funded medical institutions across the world. A huge number of people who cannot afford medical insurance face annoying situations when their treatments can’t wait. Also, open construction sites across outdoor areas without warning signs are definitely an open invitation to accidents. Ray meeting both these circumstances simultaneously, although partly in his imagination, turns out to be a grave misfortune. The film also touches the sensitive topic of organ donation, and, trafficking, which is an extremely illegal practice closely associated with it.
One loose part of the film is that when Ray approaches the police, pleading that there might be something wrong with the hospital, and the cops seemingly don’t do enough to investigate the matter. The police could have been tighter and more proactive to inspect the case, considering the fact that it emerges as a missing person’s case inside a small hospital. Ray appears entirely disadvantaged from all sides, which looks unfair from the viewer’s perspective. There is less room for Ray to fight for justice. Lily Rabe appears slightly unnatural in her acting in certain parts. Agreed that it might have been the script’s demand—a careful development of the characters could have very well polished the unfolding of the plot.
Nevertheless, the story is interesting enough to keep your senses hooked, and the cinematography of the movie is one-of-its-kind, giving the audience a rich dizzy-dreamy experience. Also, another good attribute of the film is the fairly large amount of entertainment that has been delivered in just under 1 hour 45 minutes without any dull moments.
A sensitive family drama with a compelling story and a thrilling end, “Fractured” can be a good watch to warp your senses for a while!
