Here's the problem with "Fracture": You have this super-rich dude named Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) who owns an aerospace company and he comes home one day and shoots his wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), right in the face as payback for cheating on him with Detective Rob Nunally (Billy Burke). As Crawford goes mano-a-mano with prosecutor Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), director Gregory ("Hart's War") Hoblit puts the audience in the position of rooting for (and laughing at) Crawford's incredible know-it-all attitude.

Keep in mind, there's no question that Crawford shot his wife right in the face. There's no question that he's guilty of attempted murder (his wife actually ends up in one of those "persistent vegetative states" which made me fear that Terry Shiavo-like questions were going to start sprouting like dandelions). In fact, the audience is asked to have something approaching contempt for Beachum, who works in the Los Angeles District Attorney's office under the tutelage of Joe Lobruto (David Strathairn). Beachum is a lowly public employee, but is on his way up and out, having just been hired at a corporate firm due to his 97% conviction rate.

Beyond the fact that it might be a bit too apropos right now, shouldn't it be considered distasteful to laugh at and sympathize with a cold-blooded murderer while despising a hard-working, up-by-the-bootstraps type like Beachum? Perhaps this is just bad timing and I've really found murderers a lot funnier and more cuddly in the past. And let me just say that this is quite a bit different than something like "Grindhouse," which makes no claim on reality. This is more about a feeling. The murderer is funny and clever. The filmmakers want us to like him.

And as much as I don't want to read into these things too much, there seems to be a lot of disdain for women here. Jennifer gets her just due for being a cheater while Beachum's superior at the corporate firm, Nikki Gardner (Rosaumnd Pike), sleeps with him before they've even worked a full day together. I guess I'm supposed to find solace in the fact that judge (Fiona Shaw) is a woman. Gee, good for the filmmakers. Bravo. She's probably sleeping with the bailiff.

Here Hopkins is playing essentially a sedated version of his good, old Hannibal Lecter character. Crawford is smarter than everyone else and takes great joy in torturing everyone with his mind games. Among the biggest is that the police discover that the murder weapon has never been fired, which seems contradictory to the fact that Jennifer has a bullet in her head.

Funny, I kind of felt the same way.