Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Brad Anderson, Netflix.
Cast: Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe, Stephen Tobolowsky, Adjoa Andoh, Lucy Capri.
There’s a feeling of unease attributed to this panicky thriller. In part, there’s a sense of déjà vu in the storyline, all the while knowing that something is not quite right.
Something menacing is afoot. After his wife and injured daughter disappear from the emergency room, a man becomes convinced the hospital is hiding something. Viewers are left guessing about the circumstances.
The opening scene shows a disturbed driver at the wheel of a car — Ray Monroe (Worthington), travelling back from a Thanksgiving family get-together. He is arguing with his wife, Joanne (Rabe), while their young daughter, Peri (Capri) is sitting in the back seat
Stress is etched on the face of the adults. Anxiety is palpable. The journey is punctuated with awkward dialogue. There’s anger, frustration, longing, nostalgia. Joanne says he’s the “guy that I married six years ago”. We sit there wondering, apprehensive about what’s going to happen next.
The Machinist director Anderson gives a twisty suspenseful story that lacks originality, but it holds your attention. Ray superimposes the ordinary with an iniquitous score and a grim, washed-out visual. There will not be any details given here, except to say a successfully composed accident results in injuries to Peri. Obviously, the parents panic and rush her to the nearest hospital.
As a psychological thriller, Fractured upends itself more than once as we follow Ray towards the tragic climax. Absolutely convinced of his own truth, Ray puts hospital staff and local police through the ringer in the search for his wife and child who he is convinced have been somehow abducted in some bizarre conspiracy.
The final twist is morbid, but there are some hints that all is not as it seems for Ray with two blackout moments. The first happens as he hits his head while trying to save Peri, and the second comes when he waves Joanne and Peri off in the hospital, after which he wakes up in the waiting room. What goes on is anything but what we are thinking.
Another instance is when Ray wakes up, the second time round, and no one recalls or has a record of his wife and daughter checking in.
The last most significant piece of evidence that highlights the twist in Fractured is when there is no evidence of Ray’s family being on the CCTV footage. He’s humoured by staff as they look at the screens. What Ray says is not right, hence, suspicion falls on him in the disappearance of his wife and daughter.
The explanation is simple. There are times when we are our worst enemy. People do go to any lengths to avoid having to take responsibility for their actions.
