Imaginary Crimes

In my opinion 'Imaginary Crimes' along with 'Fight Club' are the best films of the 90's. 'Imaginary Crimes' may not have the most original story around but it's done to perfection. It tells it's sad story in a way that's never overly depressing and the performances are all top notch, with the standouts being Fairuza Balk and Harvey Keitel who are both totally amazing. Specials mention most go to Anthony Drazan for his superb direction especially in the scene where Balk refuses to go with Keitel to Reno. Anyone who watches this film without getting a tear in the eye must be made of stone. 10/10

Everyone who thinks Harvey can only inhabit violent, suffering Martin Scorcese type stories will be amazed at his affecting and emotional turn here, as a father struggling to raise his 2 daughters. Guilt and regret figure prominently in the plot line, which is narrated from a diary by the wonderful Fairuka Balk. Kelly Lynch gives a brief but sad performance as the mother. One of Kietel's best contains his usual trademark shouting scenes but overall: his least bloody and tortured character is also his finest time on film.

Follows the story of widowed father Ray Weiler (Harvey Kietel) trying to make it as a con artist in the 1950's. The story is told from the point of view of his daughter Sonya (Fairuza Balk) as she tries to struggle through her unenviable life while protecting her younger sister Greta (Elizabeth Moss) from their harsh environment. There's also the mandatory appearance by Vincent D'Onofrio, playing Sonya's English teacher who's actually more of a father to her than Ray ever was.

Balk and Kietel are great in this. Kietel did the slimy, overbearing father role better than I thought he would. Balk was also very good as his disillusioned daughter; they had good dad-kid chemistry, in a disfunctional sort of way. I thought the script and story were great, too. It was very real, like it could have been based on someone's memoirs. Balk's monologue right before the credits role is the perfect ending for this sort of story. A film worth renting.

Imaginary Crimes features one of the world's best "unknown" actresses Fairuza Balk (Personal Velocity, Almost Famous, The Craft, American History X) and the immensely talented Harvey Keitel.

Keitel plays a recently widowed hustler/con man who is left trying to raise his two daughters, teenager Balk and her 12 year old sister. He doesn't have a clue about raising kids. Worse, he has to hide his shady business dealings from them.

Balk is a natural born writer, who is befriended by her English teacher (Vincent D'Onofrio). He provides the supportive father figure that Keitel cannot.

Imaginary Crimes is a coming of age story. It's a small, quiet film, but very effective. The acting is superb and Balk more than holds her own with the great Keitel. Highly recommended for the outstanding performances of Balk, Keitel and D'Onofrio. Balk is one of my favorite actresses.

*One fairly minor spoiler ahead*

There's a very good story in here. I wouldn't doubt that the book is very good. However the screenplay, perhaps as well as the direction here really doesn't do the full story justice. Too much of the story is told from such an overly cynical and somewhat ignorant perspective of the older daughter by narration. Essentially this aspect alone robs the film of its overall effectiveness of being an entirely convincing film. Instead, much of the story the film tries to deliver through the narration, does not reasonably meet the actual story presented. So overall I have to say that while the film is decent, and does have a good story within it, this telling of it overall is not entirely effective enough. It's impossible to fully buy into, unless you care not to think about it much at all I suppose. I also have an issue with the part where child services takes the younger daughter away. If the oldest is 18, which she was, there should never be such a reason to do this. Unless there was some known reason why she could not care for the younger sister, which no reason of this is ever shown or even talked about at all in the film.

It really is too bad, because mostly I really enjoyed the story, and what the director and cast did here. Too bad the narration is not better written here to fit in better with the full story. It could've worked really well, and this would've been a really good little film, mainly if there were only less cynicism and narrowness of perspective in the narration.

5/10.