ADYASHA MOHAPATRA

I didn't like it very much. Nothing about the story and the chemistry between the characters was convincing. It couldn't make me care for anyone within the story. The opening scene was beautiful and so was the soundtrack..but the rest of the movie couldn't live up to all that. The stake wasn't high enough and there were characters that didn't serve the story in any way. I could go on but I'd like to be smart like the makers of the film and keep it short (though those 88 mins felt like forever). All that said, I have a bone to pick with critics who review romcoms. The one thing more predictable than the formula these films follow is the comment critics make about how predictable these films are. I'm genuinely tired of this observation. Of course they are! They're just keeping true to the genre. Yes you can follow the formula and still bring originality into it and do it right; but at the same time it is also rather redundant to use the same comment for every romcom that comes out. Even the good ones! It wouldn't be a romcom if it didn't have some common patterns such as chance meetings, fated mixups, etc. just like it wouldn't be a thriller without something going terribly wrong within the story. There has to be some violence at some point. Even in psychological thrillers. Call it cliched and you're asking for a different genre.

The fact that healthcare organisations who are supposed to save our lives could be working against us is a rather terrifying notion and "Fractured", like many movies that have come before it, makes use of this very paranoia to deliver its promised thrill. Although I do not mind old formulas being rehashed for new films, what decides its success for me is the level of genius involved in (mis)leading us to the anticipated twist. I must humbly mention that this movie disappointed me in that regard. I could not connect with Ray, or even cared much for the dilemma he was in. I did not hate/doubt the people at the hospital enough because they were being comically shady. Most of all, I disliked the fact that the clues were planted sloppily which to me, is a greater crime than if they had been planted obviously. Speaking of old formulas, the trope of a failing marriage needs to go away from American films for a while. I could practically see the writer delivering his elevator pitch..so there's this guy Ray, marriage falling apart, yada, yada, yada.. I was also being reminded of Steven Soderbergh's "Unsane" (released one year before this one) which has a similar "shady hospital" premise but I liked it more because the possibility of what could be going on was more uncanny than the obvious organ trafficking. I do not frown upon genres for repeating their formula (romcoms in particular get a terrible rep for that) because that's part of the reason why they are clubbed together as a "genre" in the first place. However, I do believe that different artistic eyes can still bring a degree of originality that makes itself visible if not in the structure as a whole, but in the in-betweens that make up a film's muscle. I wish this one had lived upto that. All that being said, I did enjoy watching Adjoa Andoh, no matter how briefly. I also like the fact that there were no unnecessary scenes in the movie. Every scene served it's purpose towards the buildup, breathtaking or not.

There aren't enough tissues in the world for this one. A minimalistic movie with unfathomable emotional depth that will leave your lips quivering the whole time until, in the end, you will have to take your glasses off, wipe your soaked face and blow your nose red. As a daughter whose dad was recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure, I wasn't just watching an obese man suffer, I was watching a father stuck (more so metaphorically) in the loop of his bad decisions and trying to make last minute attempts at building a connection with his daughter. His obesity only serves to accentuate his struggles especially when we see him through the eyes of strangers like Thomas and Dan, who have no stakes in his life as opposed to Liz, Mary and of course Ellie who denies those stakes until the very end. My favourite scene of all was when Mary, Charlie's former wife visits him and they have an open conversation, long overdue as it felt, that alternated between resentment and affection. I found Mary's character extremely raw and emotionally powerful. There's much else to say, especially about Fraser's performance but I am not ready to leave Charlie yet. It will be a while before I am able to spot Fraser in the character. I think that says a lot about how he did.