Broadcast News (1987) * * *

Directed by:  James L. Brooks

Starring:  William Hurt, Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, Joan Cusack, Robert Prosky, Jack Nicholson

Broadcast News covers familiar ground as a newsroom comedy with almost documentary-like authenticity about the world of TV news.     The one constant is that nothing is constant.     The characters are defined by their jobs and have very little time for much else, including romance.     Broadcast News could be talking about any job where people are under the pressure of deadlines and once one crisis is over, another one is waiting around the corner.     When we see characters talk to each other about something other than work, it is something of a minor miracle.

Broadcast News takes place at a nightly network news program.     Made in 1987, this is when the competition to break the story was limited only to beating other networks and possibly the newspaper.     The internet would completely change the game.     Because the name of the game is to break stories faster, many network news broadcasts or "special report" coverage of an event do not even bother to check to see if a development is accurate.     New "facts" scroll across the ticker on the bottom of the screen and the facts change within minutes.     It doesn't matter much if they are actually true.    The network of Broadcast News at least attempts to present a semblance of accuracy and truth.     Nowadays, it would play second fiddle to TMZ.     The nightly news is no longer the top news source for people.     It is more of a recap show for events  that were already presented, discussed, broken down, and dissected by other sources.   

The weekend anchor is Tom Grunick (Hurt), a sports reporter for a small station hired because of his looks, deep voice, and charisma.     He isn't a great reader and doesn't know much, but the audience likes him.     His new co-worker is Aaron Altman (Brooks), a field reporter who looks upon Tom with equal parts fascination and envy.    He thought he would get the weekend anchor spot, but we learn later he isn't exactly cut out for it.     He perspires a lot and noticeably.     Tom and the program producer Jane Craig (Hunter) become an item, much to Aaron's displeasure because he is in love with Jane himself.

Jane isn't necessarily adept at handling relationships.     Her first love is her job, where she thrives under the pressure.      When the pressure is off, she scarcely knows what to do.     Hunter, Hurt, and Brooks were all nominated for Oscars for their performances and give us respectively three-dimensional portraits of people who in a lesser movie would be mere archetypes of a workaholic producer, a pretty boy on-camera talent, and an overlooked, self-important newsman who can't imagine what the producer sees in the pretty boy.   

Behind the scenes is the ever-looming threat of layoffs due to declining ratings.     The nightly news anchor Bill Rorish (Nicholson) is safe and laments out loud to an underling how much he hates when layoffs happen.     The underling gently suggests that Bill knock a million a year off of his salary so the layoffs wouldn't be necessary.     Bill simply gives the underling a "what are you, kidding me?" look and the suggestion is soon forgotten.

The romantic subplots are not as entertaining as the insiders view of the news business.     We sort of know what's bound to happen with the love triangle and it doesn't quite fit.    It feels shoehorned in to broaden the movie's appeal.     But, the movie knows what it's talking about when it reflects on the slick, professional, highly volatile world of media.     Broadcast News was made when TV was the top of the media food chain.     It almost seems quaint now, which is refreshing in its own right, but in its context the pressures and the office politics were very real.     They have since been replaced with different kinds of pressures, but no less intense.      

I Saw the Light (2016) * *

Directed by:  Marc Abraham

Starring:  Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Bradley Whitford, Cherry Jones

I had the feeling when watching I Saw the Light that I came in during the middle of the story.    Good biopics allow you to feel you understand its subject's motivations and hungers.     We never really get to know Hank Williams (Hiddleston) despite a strong Tom Hiddleston performance.     There are throwaway lines referencing his childhood, but we don't truly get the full picture of the iconic singer/songwriter who died in the back seat of a car on January 1, 1953 at age 29.     Like the subject of many singer biopics, Williams struggled with alcohol and drugs throughout his adult life.    Partly because he was afflicted with Spina bifida, and partly because his life seemed destined to be cut short.    

I couldn't help but compare I Saw the Light to Walk the Line (2005), the superior Johnny Cash biopic.    Cash, like Williams, was a famous country singer who saw crossover fame.     Cash's life and career lasted a lot longer.    Walk the Line provides us with reasons why he was driven to succeed and destroy himself in the process.     His father would openly say things like, "The wrong son died".     This filled Cash with a burning desire to prove the old man wrong, but the alcohol and drugs tempered any satisfaction.     I Saw the Light only makes us guess as to what drove Williams.     Hiddleston's stage performances show Williams singing in his trademark voice with a big hat and a bigger smile.    The movie focuses more on Williams' upside down personal life, which involved two marriages, broken homes, and erratic behavior.     This is the first musical biopic where the concert performances seem dropped in just so we can be reminded why we are watching a film about its subject.

Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen, who plays his first wife Audrey in a convincing performance, did their own singing.     Their musical abilities pass muster.      We never see the process of Williams writing songs or his inspiration to write them.     We only see him performing them or recording them with relative ease after all the hard work was done.     The movie hurries past this so we can see him drink some more and make life miserable for himself and everyone around him.     I think of The Buddy Holly Story (1978), which took its time to show us the process of Holly's songwriting and musicianship.    We came away feeling that he would still have been a force in the music business even if he stopped performing.    A plane crash left us only with speculation as to what might have been, but we sensed his passion for music.  

By the end of his life, Williams had spun totally out of control.    He had a heart condition (perhaps unbeknownst to him) that was exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse.     He was divorced from Audrey, knocked up another girl, and then settled down to marry another one just a few months before he died.     He developed a bad reputation for being unreliable since showing up at shows drunk become commonplace.     However, there is nothing here we haven't seen before in other biopics.    This doesn't feel like Williams' story, but the story of someone kind of like him.     It doesn't feel unique to him.  

Hiddleston and the other actors do their mightiest to bring us some understanding of Williams and the people who loved him and suffered with him.    Hiddleston has the look of Williams and is up to carrying the heavy load on his thin frame.     Olsen creates a portrait of a strong-willed woman who took a lot from Williams, but clearly draws a line in the sand as to how much more she will take.   She would only be pushed around so much.    I couldn't help but be reminded of June Carter.     I suppose it's not a great thing when a movie consistently reminds me of better ones covering the same ground.     

Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Spike Lee

Starring:  Michael Jackson, Rosie Perez, Marlon Jackson, Joe Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Spike Lee, Mark Ronson

"Without Off the Wall, there would be no Thriller," says one of those interviewed for Spike Lee's documentary about the early years of Michael Jackson's career, culminating with the release of 1979's Off the Wall.     It's a mixed bag.    The impressive focus is on Jackson's work ethic and pursuit of perfection in his work.    He loved what he did.     He would sit in for hours on other artists' recording sessions just to learn how to produce a record and mix it.    He was tough on himself.     "Even if a song went to number one, I am always thinking how I could have improved it," says Michael himself.

As big an album as Off the Wall was for Jackson at the time, it was eclipsed in every respect by Thriller (1982).     Off the Wall became that first Michael Jackson solo album.     Songs like Rock with You and Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough still receive wide radio airplay, but it is odd to see a Michael Jackson documentary that stops before Thriller.     It's like a World War II documentary that ends just as the Germans invaded Poland.     Director Spike Lee has made strong documentaries before (Four Little Girls) and he knows the territory.     But why do I get the suspicion this one was made because no one else ever thought to make a documentary about Jackson's third most famous solo album?     If you want to argue that Bad (1987) belongs in the tertiary position, go ahead.    

It is certainly true that Thriller represented the next step in Jackson's evolution as the King of Pop.   The album sold millions, yet Jackson only won Grammys in R & B categories that were not shown live on TV.     He made Thriller partly because he was driven by perceived snubs.     After Thriller, no one could deny him his superstardom.     He achieved stardom as a young boy and lead singer of the Jackson 5.    They were a Motown staple, but soon jumped ship to Epic/CBS records in order to pursue better creative control.     It is amusing to hear the CBS President at the time tell a story about how he nearly refused to sign the Jacksons.     What a colossal mistake that would have been.

The Jacksons (the name Jackson 5 was still owned by Motown) released Destiny in 1978 featuring the huge hit "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)".    Michael wanted to be a solo artist and his movie role in The Wiz (1978) and Off the Wall cemented that dream.     The movie not only focuses on Jackson's singing and songwriting abilities, but his dancing.     Michael was gifted and worked hard.    He was forever trying to push the limits of his abilities.    It is part of what made him great.

But then, Lee's film hits a wall (no pun intended).    Song by song is covered.    We hear the history, we see numerous talking heads saying how great the song was, and then on to the next song.     The pattern becomes monotonous.    I found myself wanting Lee to get through the songs faster.   Do we really need to hear a review of a song that Michael Jackson himself probably forgot he recorded?     The personal baggage that inevitably followed Michael into scandal, controversy, a trial on child molestation charges, and then his untimely death in 2009 is sidestepped.    The scope does not extend that far.    Lee's documentary is really a love song to the Michael Jackson before he became the world's biggest megastar and thus began his tragic downfall.    But the movie only tells half of the story.    What's told here is done well, but it all feels incomplete.  

Pulp Fiction (1994) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Quentin Tarantino

Starring:  John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, Uma Thurman, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Amanda Plummer

Pulp Fiction combines elements of crime drama, human comedy, and smart dialogue.    They mostly fit, although there are a couple of scenes that drag on too long and should have been trimmed.     But, Pulp Fiction remains an influential film that marked the arrival of writer/director Quentin Tarantino.    His movies have been hit and miss since then, but there is no denying his influence.    Pulp Fiction plays with its chronology so a character who seemingly died midstream is "resurrected" and its criminals actually discuss things other than how they will kill their next victim.    Tarantino himself has been guilty in recent years of being excessive with his violence, film length, and bouts of endless dialogue.   It is as if he is trying to show his imitators who the master is.   

Pulp Fiction tells numerous tales in Los Angeles' criminal underworld.     Following the opening credits, we see hitmen Jules (Jackson) and Vincent (Travolta) on their way to a meeting with some punks who ripped off their unforgiving boss Marcellus Wallace (Rhames).     They discuss Vincent's recent trip to Europe, with Vincent explaining what Quarter Pounders with cheese are called in France.   ("Royale with cheese").    They are so loose that you may not even realize they will be killing people in the next few minutes.     There is also discussion of why Marcellus Wallace threw a guy out of a window because he allegedly gave Wallace's wife a foot massage.    This sets up the next sequence where Vincent is asked by Wallace to take his wife Mia (Thurman) out on the town while he's away.  

Things don't go as planned.    Vincent finds himself in a crisis when Mia snorts heroin and overdoses.    He calls on his drug dealer friend Lance (Stoltz) to help out.    This requires an injection to her heart and they only have one shot at making it work.     Vincent is terrified, not so much for Mia, but for what will happen to him if Mia dies on his watch.      Marcellus Wallace is not a man to be trifled with, as boxer Butch (Willis) learns when he does not throw a fight as instructed.    Or as the guys in the apartment in the beginning learn.     When he tells someone, "I'm going to get medieval on your ass," you can take it to the bank.    And it won't be pleasant.

There are more plot twists involving Willis, Rhames, and Travolta.    They do not roll out predictably.    Things happen that are unexpected and deadly.     A main character is killed off much to our surprise, but then returns in a flashback segment.     Why did Tarantino write the film this way?   Perhaps to confound the audience and surprise it.    Or to shake up the tried and true method of movie chronology.  We learn later in the movie why we see Travolta and Jackson in t-shirts and shorts after their first scene shows them in suits.    Or why Jules was not present at a crucial time which likely would have resulted in certain death for him had he been there.    And there is an unanticipated conclusion to the feud between Wallace and Butch which actually involves some sort of redemption for Butch.     Although he still has to leave town because, according to Wallace, "You've lost your L.A. privileges."

Little dialogue touches like that make Pulp Fiction go.    I haven't even mentioned a restaurant robbery conducted by two lovers (Roth and Plummer), who decide to rob the place for the hell of it.    They meet up with Jules and Vincent with another set of unintended consequences and resolutions.    Just when you think a story arc will play out one day, Tarantino goes against the grain and resolves it in a more satisfying way that flies in the face of convention.

Three of the movie's performances were Oscar nominated, with Tarantino's screenplay winning.    Travolta for Best Actor, Jackson for Best Supporting Actor, and Thurman for Best Supporting Actress.    All were richly deserved.     Jackson's directness and frankness plays very well off of Travolta's half-stoned Vincent.    They bicker and disagree like an old married couple, but we sense they have worked together so long that this is part of the routine.    Thurman's Mia is a woman aching for some excitement since her life as a mob wife doesn't give her much.    She gets more than she bargains for.    She clearly devours Tarantino's juicy dialogue in her scenes with Vincent.     Ving Rhames did not receive awards consideration, but he is no less memorable.     He doesn't mince words and exercises longstanding authority.   When asked at a crucial juncture if he's ok, he responds in the way only Wallace can: "No, I'm pretty fucking far from ok."  

A couple of scenes, including a cab driver's conversation with Butch and Butch's scenes with his girlfriend, run far too long.    Trim those and you have a near perfect movie.    Pulp Fiction retains a lot of its wit and ingenuity after twenty plus years.     The themes of Jules' redemption and Butch's remain thoughtful.     Jules decides to walk out on the criminal life after surviving a near death experience.    It won't be easy, but his journey in the final third of the film retains a certain power.   






     

The Bronze (2016) *

 

Directed by:  Bryan Buckley

 

Starring:  Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Thomas Middleditch, Sebastian Stan, Haley Lu Richardson, Cecily Strong

 

Hope Ann Greggory (Rauch) is one of the most unpleasant, abrasive, horrible movie characters I've encountered in many a moon.     Since The Bronze is billed as a comedy, her overuse of swear words and generally abhorrent behavior is supposed to be funny.     Or are we supposed to commend Rauch for writing and playing someone who rips the envelope instead of merely pushing it?    When Hope finally decides to do something decent and redeem herself, we couldn't care less.    She stepped so far over the line there is no coming back.      Her attempts to ingratiate herself with the audience are even worse.

 

Hope is a former Olympic bronze medal gymnast from the 2004 Olympics.    She managed to perform a tough uneven bars routine despite injuring her Achilles tendon.     Fast forward to present day, where the miserable Hope still lives in her hometown of Amherst, Ohio.    Hope dresses every day in her Olympic warm up suit (I wonder what that smells like after a while).    She lives off the free stuff she wriggles out of people thanks to her status as the closest thing to a town celebrity.    Oh, and she steals money from the mail in her father's postal truck and is generally nasty to everyone she comes into contact with.     Of course, she also likes to buy weed, or at least manipulate her way into getting some.     It is a pattern in comedies that smoking weed or possessing weed in and of itself is hilarious.    We are a long way past Reefer Madness, guys.  

 

Hope has an ongoing cold war with her former coach, who trains sunny Olympic hopeful Maggie Townsend (Richardson) who Hope detests.     Hope pretty much detests anyone, but particularly Maggie because she threatens to usurp Hope as the town's resident celebrity.     Thanks to plot developments too laborious to mention, Hope finds herself training Maggie for a spot on the Olympic team.     At first, she sabotages the naïve, guileless Maggie, but then she actually starts training her legitimately.     Meanwhile, she torments her spineless enabling father (Cole), who reads books on how to deal with a monster like Hope.

 

The Bronze doesn't generate a single laugh, a mere chuckle, or even a slight smile.    Rauch, who plays Bernadette on The Big Bang Theory and co-wrote the script with her husband Winston, is apparently not interested in career self-preservation.     Their creation of Hope Ann Greggory is a woeful miscalculation and a complete overestimation of the audience's patience with her.     There is nothing redeeming about her.    Like her father eventually concedes, she is a total bitch.     A nice guy named Ben (Middleditch from HBO's Silicon Valley) is condescendingly called Twitchy by Hope (due to his facial tics), but he wants to date her anyway.    Why?    There is nothing to like about her.     

 

Rauch speaks with an accent that channels her inner Sarah Palin.    I halfway expected her to say how she can see Russia from her front porch.     There is also a former flame on the scene in Lance Tucker (Stan aka The Winter Soldier from Captain America), a gold medal gymnast who loathes Hope yet can't resist wanting to bang her in over the top fashion.    How over the top?    The two have sex while performing gymnastic vaults and flips.  Inventive positions are used.  I saw something like this from Sacha Baron Cohen in Bruno.  It wasn't funny then and it isn't funny now.   

 

The Bronze follows a predictable story arc as Hope goes from a horror to a mere terror in the course of 90 minutes.     We are supposed to be happy that she actually treats people with at least a modicum of dignity at the end.     Are we supposed to suddenly care that she has feelings?     It's okay to have your lead as an unpleasant grouch, but make the character funny and with a glint of charm and wit.   Something to build on.     Bill Murray in Groundhog Day is a perfect example.    Sure, he's crass and put upon, but we know he can be redeemed and has good qualities somewhere.     Hope Ann Greggory is bereft of anything resembling good qualities.      I can be tempted to laud Rauch as having the courage to play someone so over the top, but I find it's a temptation I can easily resist.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ghostbusters (2016) * * *

Directed by:  Paul Feig

Starring:  Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Andy Garcia, Neil Casey, Bill Murray, Chris Hemsworth

I admit the trailer to the reimagined Ghostbusters with female leads did not look promising.     I scoffed.    Not because of some misguided belief that the original film is a Holy Grail in filmmaking and a remake is akin to heresy, but because I was not a fan of director Feig's earlier efforts.    Bridesmaids, Spy, and The Heat averaged 1.67 stars between the three.    (That's two stars for Bridesmaids and Spy, plus one for The Heat).     Remakes and reboots are so common in Hollywood anymore that complaining about them is as futile as complaining about the weather.     It just is and we must accept it.     I liked the original Ghostbusters plenty and I enjoyed Ghostbusters II (1989), although that puts me in the minority.    

This version has a charm of its own.     It is not a remake as much as a reimagining.     The cast does not strain for laughs, but the laughs come from within the characters.     None of the ladies turns into a foul loudmouth.     They retain a certain sweetness and likability.     Yes, there is lots of slime, but at least someone isn't assaulted with bodily fluids.    There is surely the temptation to try and outdo the original film or aim for the lowbrow, but this version wisely avoids both.     Those who disliked Ghostbusters attacked it with a savagery reserved for early 2000's Ben Affleck movies.     But, I'm not here to review their reviews, I'm here to provide my own.    

The four principals are Dr. Erin Gilbert (Wiig), a Columbia science professor looking for tenure and disavowing anything to do with a book on ghosts she wrote years ago with her then-friend Dr. Abby Yates (McCarthy).    Yates and her lab partner Jillian Holtzman (McKinnon) have created technology which would help track ghosts.     Patty Tolan (Jones), a Manhattan subway worker who saw a ghost on the tracks, is the fourth and joins the other three later.     Erin, Abby, and Jillian investigate rumors of a haunted house and after confirming the presence of supernatural beings, go into the ghostbusting business.     They set up shop right above the Chinese restaurant that is forever shortchanging the number of won tons in Abby's soup.     More ghosts are sighted and a malevolent outcast hotel janitor (Casey) is helping to unleash them on the world.

The ladies hire a stud receptionist named Kevin (Hemsworth), who is dumber than a box of rocks, but stirs up lustful feelings in Erin.    He wears glasses without the lens not as a fashion statement, but because the lenses kept getting dirty.     Answering the phone is quite the challenge for him.     The movie is able to milk some pretty inventive laughs out of Kevin's stupidity.    The Ghostbusters make headlines after battling malicious ghosts at a rock concert (much to Ozzy Osbourne's consternation), but are soon asked to admit being frauds by the mayor (Garcia), who has federal agents working undercover on the disturbances and doesn't want the cover disturbed.     Or at least I think that was the play.  

Jillian is the techno geek of the four, forever gleefully inventing gadgets on the fly to battle the ghosts.    The proton packs the Ghostbusters carry act as laser lassos to trap the spirits.    And there is no mention of an apocalypse if the streams were ever crossed.     Of the four, McKinnon is the scene stealer.    She wears giant goggles and really gets into DeBarge's Rhythm of the Night, (although she thinks it's by Devo).     She perks our interest without even trying.    Emotions escape from her as if there is no more where that came from, which is sublimely fascinating.     I'd like to know what she does in her leisure hours.    Wiig more or less plays it straight, although she is really cute when she sets eyes on Kevin.    McCarthy, refreshingly, never reverts to being a mean potty mouth she defaults to in other films.     Jones is the most vocal, no-nonsense member of the group.    The good thing, no one tries to outdo each other in the name of cheap laughs.     Each stays in her lane.   

I am happy I gave Ghostbusters a shot.    The perky, underdog ladies battle the ghosts (and the evil janitor) and I found myself caring about them, which is how good comedies work.     If the people are interesting, then the rest works itself out.     There are cameos by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts from the original that don't distract.     Even the Sta-Puft marshmallow man returns in the climactic battle.     I can honestly say I'd like to see more of these Ghostbusters, but the scathing critical reviews and underwhelming box office may make this unlikely.    But, you never know in Hollywood.    



    


  

Fracture (2007) * * *

Directed by:  Gregory Hoblit

Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Anthony Hopkins, Billy Burke, Rosamund Pike, Fiona Shaw, Cliff Curtis, Embeth Davidtz, Zoe Kazan, David Strathairn

Ted Crawford (Hopkins), a wealthy airplane manufacturer, comes home one day and shoots his wife in the face, causing irreversible brain damage and leaving her in a coma.    There is no hope of recovery.    Ted is arrested for attempted murder, confesses to the crime, and his conviction seems to be an open and shut case.     The case is handled at the district attorney's office by Willy Beachum (Gosling), a hotshot attorney with a 97% conviction rate who is short timing it at the office.     He has a higher-paying, more prestigious job waiting for him at a slick Los Angeles firm.     Willy figures he can pad his stats and impress his new bosses.     We learn soon enough a conviction will not be that simple.

The constitutional right to a speedy trial only seems to happen in movies.     In Fracture, Ted is arraigned and his trial starts all within the two-week notice Willy gives his boss.     Ted curiously represents himself and is all malevolent smiles as the evidence piles up against him.     Then, the case begins to turn.     Detective Nunally (Burke), who was on the scene and took Ted's confession, was his wife's lover and thus this throws the entire confession out.     Then there is the matter of a missing murder weapon, which Ted somehow disposed of, or did he?     Willy is flustered as the case slips away, his new job is in jeopardy before he even starts working, and his current boss, D.A. Joe Lubruto (Strathairn) questions his sloppy lawyering and takes him off the case.

Ted finds he can push Willy's buttons under a façade of benevolence, referring to him condescendingly as "old sport" and his smug belief in not of his innocence, but that Willy won't be able to convict him.    Willy begs to be put back on the case just to get a chance to shut the arrogant, rich Ted up and convict him of the attempted murder.     Like a chess master, Ted seems to have planned two to three moves ahead of Willy.    The case is barely afloat and might be wrapped up just as Willy is scheduled to leave for greener pastures.   

Fracture is at its best when depicting the tense cat-and-mouse game between the younger, arrogant Willy and the older, arrogant Ted.    We side with Willy because he is on the right side of the law, but we don't necessarily root for him personally.     Gosling and Hopkins are effective adversaries and their confrontations never fail to be suspenseful.      I have a hard time buying their final showdown, though, even though it leads to satisfying conclusion for all.     Would Ted, who carefully and precisely thought his way through his legal strategy, be so reckless with his mouth?   Or make a boneheaded decision with his wife's fate that would potentially upend his own legal standing?     Or conveniently forget how the double jeopardy clause works?     It is as if the wily Ted suddenly went all idiot on us in the final 15 minutes.  

Up until that time, Fracture is a quick-moving, stylish courtroom thriller.     Hopkins isn't Hannibal Lecter, but his manners and civil façade suggest the malevolence beneath the surface much like Lecter.     Gosling undergoes some compelling changes as he grows from cocky lawyer to a guy who reads to Ted's comatose wife at her hospital bed.     He learns to care for others, at least to an extent.     I also liked the always dependable Strathairn as the D.A. who we know will wind up fully supporting Willy in the end as the voice of reason and conscience.  

Despite the plot holes, I still admired Fracture mostly because of the performances and director Hoblit, who has covered legal dramas adeptly in movies like Primal Fear.     He is intrigued by the shadowy elements of guilt and innocence presented in Primal Fear and now Fracture.    Somehow, my mind dredged up a line from an 80s Charles Bronson movie where Bronson proclaims, "I remember once when legal meant lawful.    Now it means a loophole."    Hoblit probably thinks the same thing.