Review of An American Crime (2007) by Daniel T — 09 Sep 2008
Catherine Keener & Ellen Page are so good that this movie doesnt deserve them. Why tell the story about one of the most horrific crimes of child abuse in history when you have nothing new to say? The story itself is so potent it has all the trappings of tabloid journalism - there is torture, starvation, sodomisation, burns and other abuses imaginable.
Except cinema lends itself to so much more as a medium: characterization, depth, irony, perhaps a new way of looking at the world & its inhumanity. Devoid of all that, all we have is a real life version of one of those Hostel or Saw movies that terrifies you, shocks you, disgusts you, and then you move on to the next page of the tabloid and forget all about it.
This movie trivialises the crime because it is so lazy in its treatment it doesnt care to tell the story any different from the 200 ways it's already been written or told. I feel bad for Ms Keener - she gave this part all the conflicting, human dimensions she could muster up and she could have been absolutely sensational in a better movie.
This review of An American Crime (2007) was written by Daniel T on 09 Sep 2008.
An American Crime has generally received positive reviews.
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