A Crime (2006)

Fantastic!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I'm going to admit straight off of the bat that the only reason I watched this film was because I'm a huge Norman Reedus fan. I'm also going to immediately admit that the only reason I continued watching this film once I got past the half hour point was also because of Norman Reedus.The plot of the film has plenty of potential and, perhaps in another director's hands, could have been a thrilling, emotional drama. What we actually receive, however, is a film sorely lacking in emotion and character development. This applies to the plot as well; the murder of Vincent's wife, which should have felt like the driving force of the story, was really more like a brief point. In addition, the entire movie seems to be lacking in motivation; many aspects that could have been explored further are left unexplained or simply ignored. I also had to suspend realism at a number of points, especially regarding Alice's seduction of Roger basically happening in one night.Of all the characters, Alice's was most underdeveloped and it almost feels like the writers didn't even make an attempt to make her likable. Indeed, over the course of the film, the only things I truly felt towards her were anger and childish annoyance. This is a role that could have been written much, much better and that improvement alone most likely would have changed the entire film. Every movie does have a highlight, however, and the highlight of A Crime happens to be the acting of Norman Reedus and Harvey Keitel. The latter gives a quietly menacing, slightly creepy performance as cab driver Roger and Norman, although underutilized, plays his role to the best of his ability.Overall, if you're a Norman Reedus or Harvey Keitel fan, or are extremely bored on a weekend, give the film a try. Otherwise, there are much better 'noir' films that you could view.

***SPOILERS***SPOILERS***SPOILERS**** I watched this movie because I'm a big Norman Reedus fan. I would have preferred if he'd had more screen time for character development. My review contains SPOILERS! Alice (Emmanuelle Beart), a small woman with lips like a cartoon duck, is supposedly so beautiful she can get any man she wants. Predictably, she wants the one man who doesn't want her: Vincent (Reedus), who finds her annoying. He's also hung up on his wife's murder of 3 years prior, which he believes was committed by a cabbie in a yellow cab with a dented door, and wearing a red shirt and a ring. Now, you'd think they'd be able to find this guy. Granted, there are tons of cabs in NYC, but not all of them are yellow. You think they'd be able to find cabs that were on the road at that time and check for dented doors, and also check dispatch records to see which cabbies were driving. But no, with all the information they have, they can't find the killer.Alice decides that if Vincent can only get over his wife's murder (by killing the killer), he would immediately and automagically fall in love with her, despite the fact that he doesn't really like her. She then dupes aging cabbie Roger (Harvey Keitel) to think that the most beautiful woman in the world could fall instantly in love with an aging cabbie who has a boomerang fetish. She dents his cab door (no explanation how she could duplicate the size, shape & location of a dent she's never seen), buys him a red shirt (as if the cabbie wouldn't have changed his shirt in 3 years) and a ring, which again we don't know how she could duplicate.She steers Roger toward Vincent, who arranges Roger's death but does such a bad job of it (despite being helped by a gang) that Roger lives, seeks out Alice (returns to her like a BOOMERANG, get it?) and after Alice tearfully confesses everything to him, decides he still wants her. After doing a weird dance with a booze glass at a jazz club, he insists that he and Alice leave NYC. The minute he falls asleep in her presence, she murders him. Since the NYC police are portrayed as completely incompetent, we are left with the idea she gets away with it and she, Vincent, and his dog all live happily ever after, because of course the need to avenge his wife really was all that was needed for Vincent to fall madly in love with Alice.I liked the look of this film, and I did keep wondering what would happen next. The acting is decent but Reedus is only given a one-dimensional character to play, and the numerous implausibilities hampered it for me. I generously give it a 7, because it gave me a couple of hours to look (on and off) at Norman Reedus.

Not much of a plot and until I read other reviews I could barely figure out what the whole point of the movie was. I cannot believe Harvey Keitel would be in a movie like this. It needed A lot more explanation and at least some action. The dog races had nothing to do with the story. They needed to have the wife in the movie so the viewers could at least try to understand the importance of any of the story At the end you didn't even feel like it should be the end. Just as confusing and boring as the rest of the movie. The actors were not very good as you can tell by looking up their past movie history they haven't done too well before or after this movie. Thank goodness I had a free Redbox code so at least I didn't waste any money just wasted time watching it.

Some people might have two problems with the film: 1. It's rather old fashioned (which is a good thing in my opinion, I don't like the regular hyped mainstream trash). The plot is the kind of story that could come from a novel of Patricia Highsmith, and the look of the film is more like it's from the late 70's or early 80's. 2. The pretty complex story with a lot of strange (and maybe) almost unbelievable coincidences. And you don't get a simple positive character for identification. Exact the same way many french thrillers from the good old times were working (especially those of Clouzot). Though sometimes these films seem a bit too over-constructed (and I must admit I had this problem when I first saw Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques", 1955). But when you accept this (and life itself sometimes surprises us with strange coincidences too), you will see an excellent, very emotional thriller with great performances. You'll never know what happens next!