Crimes of the Heart (1986)
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81% of critics liked it
(21 reviews) -
54% of users liked it
(2,652 ratings)
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Beth Henley (who also penned the screenplay), Crimes of the Heart stars three high-powered actresses as three high-strung sisters. Lenny (Diane Keaton), Meg (Jessica Lange) and Babe (Sissy Spacek) gather at Lenny's deep-South home for her birthday.… More Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Beth Henley (who also penned the screenplay), Crimes of the Heart stars three high-powered actresses as three high-strung sisters. Lenny (Diane Keaton), Meg (Jessica Lange) and Babe (Sissy Spacek) gather at Lenny's deep-South home for her birthday. Lenny, the oldest, can't seem to sustain a relationship with a man. Meg is an aspiring actress who hasn't progressed beyond commercial voice overs. And Babe is released on bond from jail after shooting her senator husband. Add to this information the fact that the girls' mother killed herself in Lenny's house, and that when Meg offhandedly expresses the wish that grouchy grandfather Hurd Hatfield would slip into a coma, he does, whereupon the sisters, despite every effort to treat the situation with proper sobriety, burst into helpless laughter over her "psychic" powers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Bruce Beresford
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
PG-13,
- In Theaters
- Dec 12, 1986 Wide
- On DVD
- Feb 3, 2004
- Studio
- De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)
Critic Reviews
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Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times
It is excruciating: a combination of Beth Henley's insistently eccentric screenplay, Bruce Beresford's frenzied direction and the sight of three singular talents on an acting roller coaster with no one riding the brakes.
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, Time Out
Beresford fails to generate sufficient chemistry to bind the performances. Occasional bursts of delicious tragic humour nevertheless make this a not unlikeable 'feminist' mood piece.
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Vincent Canby, New York Times
[It] has the dubious distinction of calling attention to just about everything the play isn't, and was never meant to be.
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Paul Attanasio, Washington Post
As Spacek, Lange and Keaton clamor for attention, "Crimes of the Heart" becomes less a movie than a three-ring circus, and ringmaster Beresford does little to direct your gaze.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
There are moments when the movie doesn't seem to know where it's going, but for once that's a good thing because the uncertainty almost always ends with some kind of a delightful, weird surprise.
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Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Diane Keaton
as Lenny Magrath
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Jessica Lange
as Meg Magrath
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Sissy Spacek
as Babe Magrath
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Sam Shepard
as Doc Porter
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Tess Harper
as Chick Boyle
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Hurd Hatfield
as Old Grandaddy
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David Carpenter
as Barnette Lloyd
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Beeson Carroll
as Zackery Botrelle
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Jean Willard
as Lucille Botrelle
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Greg Travis
as Willie Jay
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Tom Mason
as Uncle Watson
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Annie McKnight
as Annie May Jenkins
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Connie Adams
as Zackery's Concubine
