Anthony Hopkins does his polite psycho routine in Fracture, a courtroom thriller driven by two "highly entertaining performances". The other comes courtesy of rising young talent Ryan Gosling, who plays an upstart lawyer hired to prosecute aforementioned nutter for shooting his wife. Although the film didn't make a huge splash on its initial release, it did show sticking power at the box office.

The Missing Pieces

Only seven deleted scenes and a batch of trailers accompany the film on DVD. However, the excised footage does include some neat character touches for Willy Beachum (Gosling). In an introductory scene there's a dispute over parking and the cocky young lawyer sternly informs his neighbour that this amounts to "a breach of contract."

There are more steamy moments between Willy and fellow attorney Nikki (Rosamund Pike), and he also has an intimate scene with coma patient Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz). No, we're not talking necrophilia, folks - Willy pours his heart out to Jennifer after feeling that he let her down in court.

Tying It Together

Two alternative endings form the centrepiece of the deleted scenes menu. In fact they're actually quite similar, and don't veer too much from the ending that exists in the final cut. What these new versions do offer is a chance for Hopkins to let loose and mangle the scenery a bit, so there is a certain fun factor.

It's disappointing that we don't get to hear from Hopkins and Gosling on the experience of working together, or from director Gregory Hoblit on the business of trying to rein them in. Still, if you missed the film in cinemas, this small-screen edition of Fracture demands your undivided attention.

EXTRA FEATURES

Fracture DVD is released on Monday 13th August 2007.