...although one can easily spot visual cues to the original, "Fragments" suffers from far too much similarity to prior films like "Crash," "Magnolia," and "Powder Blue." Essentially, we follow the altered lives of a number of survivors of a random act of violence until a full account of that act has been revealed in bits and pieces. The ensemble is commendably effective, with especially notable performances from Forest "Panic Room" Whitaker and Kate "Underworld" Beckinsale, the score by Marcelo "The Words" Zarvos is effectively melancholic, and Eric Alan "Copland" Edwards' camera-work is far better than other scribes on this site are willing to allow. Director Rowan "Farscape" Woods does what he can with Rory Freirich's script from his own novel, but the sketchiness of the characters makes them harder to latch onto than most, at least from what I gather on this site and others. I didn't have as much of a problem with that, and in fact sat through the entire film without breaking for a cigarette, which is fairly unusual for me, so I know that all in all something right was done, and I bumped my rating a notch over what I would have otherwise given it. If you're into watching actors do their thing without a lot of fanfare and whofoorah, I say go for it.

'Fragments' was enjoyable but mostly predictable. A film that demonstrates Rowan Woods will be able to direct with the best of them. But unfortunately it is a departure from the broody and rough as guts nature of his Australian hits "The Boys" and "Little Fish". It has no real grit, and the majority of confronting scenes are softened by timely cutaways.The strength of the film is its stellar cast. But even they seem to be going through the motions.Having fallen in love with Jeanne Tripplehorn's multi-layered polygamist role in "Big Love" it was disappointing to see her sidelined in this film to take on the token role of grieving widow. It was frustrating to have the story preoccupied with Dakota Fanning's experience of the shooting, without being able to watch more of Tripplehorn.The most engaging performance comes from Forest Whitaker. Stumbling around drunk for most of the film, he is so broken yet easy to empathise with. But again his character verges on the predicable outcome of a gambling addict. His redemption comes, but not as we expect it. Thus also redeeming the film.Guy Pearce is completely unhinged, but a sap of a character. Kate Beckinsale is a clichéd single mother. But both act their roles with such conviction that they are engrossing to watch for the duration.The unfortunate thing about this film is the mysteries are not that mysterious. It could have been more entertaining if there had been more reveals like there was in "Little Fish". This said, it is an exploration of human emotion and the core cast convey this well. The human struggle to appear in control at all costs, remains the focus and is demonstrated well.

This is one of those stories where the lives of unrelated individuals are linked by a traumatic event. In this case it is a shooting at a diner in Los Angeles that links the survivors. The film examines how these events effected the lives of those involved. One thing that attracted me to this film was a very strong cast, but I know from bitter experience that this is no guarantee of the quality of the piece. Unfortunately I was less than satisfied with the film. No problem with the quality of the performances, that was a given, it was all very disjointed and ended up as a bit of a mess I'm afraid.Here's a bit about the characters: There's a teenage girl who turns to religion and her friend, a boy who just clams up and won't speak to anyone. There's the waitress who neglects her baby because she feels she cannot connect with anyone any more. There's a man who has medical problems and a gambling habit who takes off to a casino to try his luck, having survived. And then there's the doctor who becomes obsessed with saving every patient, even if he has to make them sick in the first place. The film tells us about all of these characters and their friends and families and how they try to deal with the aftermath.As I said there is a great cast; Kate Beckinsale is the waitress Carla Davenport, Forest Whitaker is the gambler, Charlie Archenault, Guy Pearce is the doctor, Bruce Laraby, Dakota Fanning is the teenager, Anne Hagen and Josh Hutcherson is her teenage friend, Jimmy Jaspersen. I think you can see why I might have been attracted to a movie with these actors involved.The production was pretty good, although it did look like there was a bit of a tight budget. I get the impression that this story would probably work better on the page rather than on the screen. Either that, or something got terribly lost in translation! Unfortunately it all felt far too disjointed to me and the thread of the story got lost. It's almost as if there were too many characters' stories to tell and I felt that removing just one of them would have given the others more room to breathe. Sadly though, it is what it is and I have to give it my NOT recommended seal of (dis)approval.My Score: 4.5/10

This movie wasn't as great as I expected but wasn't worse either. It's okay. I'm a big fan of Dakota Fanning and I was really into this movie. The plot was pretty good but the only thing that confused me was the scenes that had the flashbacks. But, this movie is a "see only one time" type of movie. Anyways, Fragments is okay. Dakota and Josh Hutcherson were so adorable in this movie and I loved it when they kissed. I thought that they would do more like "make-out" but whatever. I also didn't like how the black guy in the movie was so lost and kind of out of his mind a little bit. He really bored me and was confusing. But, Fragments is a must see movie. It's a real mind thinker.