Henry's Crime (2011)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Pretty Good

Just perfect...

A Masterpiece!

Unparalleled development of three characters flawed only bc Henry begins as such an unbelievable loser. The tempo is beautiful, rising to genuine theater in the final scene. One of the best low-budget films I've ever seen.

A waste of time,Very nice cast but the movie it's so boring.The only thing that save a little bit this movie is the nice music.

Henry´s Crime is a cleverly written, pleasantly old fashioned film that flirts with many genres and pulls it off with great acting. There are essentially two plots co-existing here, one about a bank heist and the other about making theatre and romance. If you really must classify this piece of work file it under black comedy, that´s pretty close. It is as if the screenwriters started to think about how to improve Chekhov´s classic play the Cherry Orchard by adding a heist subplot which eventually took the whole thing over. It is complicated but the viewer is fed with very good lines of dialogue all along the twisting and turning ride. The screenplay smells of paper with way too many unlikely encounters and incidences to be plausible, but this is a film about pulling it off, and the actors do just that. Keanu Reeves plays the wooden faced but kind hearted lead character of very few words, so he has to act with body language. Vera Farmiga has an even harder role as a cold-hearted and emotionally troubled actress harassed by the great Peter Stormare as the aggressive theatre director. James Caan is supreme as the old time confidence man pulling the strings. Bill Duke is a great sidekick as the security guard. And yes, to stress the point, they all pull it off. This is a non-violent, dialogue driven film and I can see why it would not reach the younger audience. As for people with more experience of life the film can and probably should be watched twice. I´m pretty sure I missed a lot of goodies the first time around and will watch it again as opportunity arises.

There is a saying in Greece that states "All the money". You say that about things or people, when you think that they alone are worth watching a movie alone. In this particular case, I'm talking about James Caan. Keanu does his usual shtick and Vera is there, but not in a "Up" kind of way.The story itself is nothing to get too excited about (for most people that is), but James Caan gives the whole thing gravitas (and the occasional much needed comic relief). Although some would call Keanus acting constant comedy, that would not be a nice thing to say. Still, the charisma of a lead looks different in my book. Light comedy, neither too bad, nor too good.