Henry’s Crime

Henry’s Crime

With a real actor, a focused director, and fewer contrivances, this could have been a nice little indie

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Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2011

I just knew that, given time, Keanu Reeves would mature into a convincing actor and eventually put in a complex, multi-layered and unforgettable dramatic performance. Okay, no I didn’t and no he hasn’t. In fact, the dood’s like a cinematic black hole at the center of this story, sucking the essence out of all nearby performances. Pity, because with a real actor, a more focused director, and fewer contrivances in the script, this heist comedy-drama could have been crafted into a nice little indie. Reeves plays a vapid loser (he likes a challenge) who is tricked into being the wheelman in a bank robbery, is the only one that gets caught, does the time and then decides to do the crime by robbing the same bank. To do this he must land the role of Lopakhin in Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard (previous experience: toll-booth attendant) in a theater that just happens to be on one end of a hidden, prohibition-era tunnel to the bank. Right. The most excellent Vera Farmiga and an amusing James Caan do a lot with the material they’re given, but their skills merely spotlight Keanu’s woodenness. Completely unravels at the end.