Thursday, August 16, 2007 Rant Archive
An extremely wealthy man finds out his younger, quite attractive wife is having an affair. He confronts her about it approximately one minute before he shoots her in the face. Cops show up. The man confesses. It’s an open and shut case. Enter young, cocky lawyer who is about to leave the Los Angeles DA’s office to start life in the private sector. “Yeah sure, I’ll take this open and shut case as a last hurrah.” Too bad it’s not open and shut, and it’s miles away from a hurrah.
No, I’m not pitching an episode of LAW AND ORDER. That, boys and girls, is the plot line of FRACTURE, an engaging legal drama that does something most movies don’t dare to do these days—make the viewer think a little bit.
When I say legal drama, I mean drama. Not a thriller. Not an action movie. A straight up, bare knuckles, legal drama. This is not a bad thing by far. In fact, I somewhat prefer it. Director Gregory Hoblit did a better job with PRIMAL FEAR; nevertheless FRACTURE definitely isn’t short on thought-provoking entertainment. There are no car chases, intense stand-offs in the courtroom, or anything loud and obtrusive at all. (Well…I’m lying a little bit. There’s one, but it hardly counts. I digress.) The story is solid, quiet, and keeps the thrills to the intellectual sort. Even if you figure out the twist, you’ll still wonder how it’s all going to end. Plus, if you like watching movies with impeccable acting, FRACTURE is very much up your alley. Watching Hopkins and Gosling sling their acting manhood’s at one another is a treat in itself.
In tonight’s Quickfire Challenge, the contestants were told to come up with a twist on the all-American hamburger. How brilliant is that? I mean, who out there doesn’t have their own hamburger recipe? Some of them past down from grandpa Eddie, others made up out of sheer desperation. I once had a friend who claimed she came up with her famous hamburger recipe by throwing leftovers into a bowl, mixing it up and throwing it on the grill. And with plenty of summer left, tonight’s episode of TOP CHEF makes me want to rush right out and arrange a family barbecue. But, it was the elimination round that really got the juices flowing.
Whenever I see the restaurant concept challenge in one of these cooking competitions, I know the end is drawing near. It’s like the producers are teasing the chefs, by giving them a taste of their ultimate prize. Granted, in the TOP CHEF competition the winner doesn’t automatically end up winning a restaurant, but that’s pretty much any chefs ultimate dream … isn’t it? The entertaining part for the viewer was watching all the contestants break up into two teams and fight about what concept and menu to commit to. Seriously, that has to be difficult. I mean, you can have everything from Asian Cuisine to deli style food to work off of, and each chef has his or her own preference and take on what goes into running a successful restaurant. Because of all that, this challenge never fails to bring out the best and worst in some of the viewers favorite chef-testants, and tonight was no different.
Have you ever met a family as messed up as the Gavins? I would use some sort of “fun back in dysfunctional” joke, but this debacle of a clan is more tragic than anything.
This was never more evidenced than the dual intervention for Maggie (Tatum O’Neill) and Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke), where the whole family got together, almost killed each other, then decided to form its own Alcoholics Anonymous chapter. Yeah, that’ll work out.
The scariest part is that Tommy (Denis Leary) might be the most stable one of them all – even though he’s dealing with a wife who steals back the baby he sold to his ex-lover and a mysterious fling who leaves him, um, a bit unsatisfied. So I guess maybe “stable” isn’t the best word to describe any of these fools.
Just like Tommy’s life, the show is quickly spinning out of control. But while that may not be a good thing for alcoholics, it’s certainly entertaining television.