Netflix’s ‘Fractured’ Is A Puzzle Box of Fun But…
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During a Thanksgiving road trip, Ray (Sam Worthington) is driving while arguing with his wife Joanne (Lily Rabe) and trying to keep his little daughter Peri entertained. They pull off at a gas station, and while Joanne is in the restroom and Ray is distracted, Peri wanders off to a construction site next door.
Suddenly, a dog emerges, seemingly from nowhere, and stands between Peri and the car, not threateningly, but Ray tries to rescue Peri from this potential menace anyway, when she falls backwards into the construction pit breaking her arm. At the hospital, Ray and Joanne must contend with long wait times, hardly uncommon, and intrusive bureaucratic questioning, also hardly uncommon.
They finally get to see Dr. Berthram (Stephen Tobolowsky), who insists that Peri needs an MRI as soon as possible. While Joanne accompanies Peri, Ray passes out from exhaustion in the waiting room. When he wakes up, he discovers that the hospital has no record of Peri checking in, and no record of Peri and Joanne even being in the hospital.
Desperate to find his wife and daughter, and suspicious of what’s really going on in this hospital, Ray must find a way to rescue Joanne and Peri, and that’s when stuff really starts to happen.
Fractured is a better than decent thriller and it does an excellent job of playing on the sympathies of the audience. As the lead character Worthington comes off as a relatable enough middle-aged everyman trying to protect his little family in the face of what appears to be a cold hospital bureaucracy.
As the story evolves, and as Ray grows increasingly desperate in his search for his missing wife and child, we find ourselves rooting for him as he fights back against that sterile hospital bureaucracy we have all come to know and hate.
Ray’s perception of reality can be more interesting than the actual story at times. As much as one might root for Ray and his family, one may, unlikely as it sounds, find oneself rooting for the surreal dark parody of American health care.
The ending is unsettling and somewhat disturbing, but it can also seem contrived, which is unfortunate as the movie is an entertaining train ride of fun and excitement even if it isn’t quite the final destination of a Twilight Zone ending.
I give it 3 out of 5 stars because it’s just a lot of edge of your seat fun, provided you don’t think too hard.
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