Overlooked DVD: Henry's Crime

The first several shots of Henry's Crime speak volumes about both the main character and the tone of the movie itself.  Toll-booth worker Henry Torne, played by Keanu Reeves in one of his best performances, sits silently in his booth, watching as the world passes him by.  Few cars come along, and those that do all go through the several EZ-Pass lanes.  Henry's booth is the only one manned by an actual human.  Despite the boredom Henry is clearly feeling, he doesn't do anything to try to amuse himself.  He doesn't play with a smart phone.  He doesn't read a book.  He doesn't watch a portable TV.  These are things you'd expect someone in Henry's position to do to pass the lonely hours.  You'd expect this in real life, and certainly in a movie.  But Henry does nothing but stare at his folded hands, with a sad look on his face.  Finally, as dawn approaches, a vehicle heads in Henry's direction, and Reeves, in an excellent display of subtlety, gets truly excited.  Then the car, at the last moment, very suddenly swerves into one of the EZ-Pass lanes, and Henry, disappointed, resumes staring at his hands.  This is a man who, very clearly, is waiting for something to happen.  Something, anything.

Something does happen.  Henry's "friends" Eddie and Joe bilk him into giving them a ride to a ball game, tell him that they have to stop at a bank "for beer money," and rob the bank, effectively framing the clueless and innocent Henry for being the getaway driver.  99.9% of people anywhere would consider this an extremely unfortunate series of events, but Henry is just glad to have the break in the monotony.

Henry is lucky to land in a prison with the nicest convicts in all of cinema.  Henry's cellmate Max (James Caan), who seems to be the community leader within the prison's social structure, is an earnestly nice guy who teaches the prison motto regarding how many convicts claim to be innocent:  If you do the time, you might as well have done the crime.  You can tell from Henry's face that he is listening closely.

When Henry and Max are released from prison, Henry takes Max's lesson to heart, though not in a way Max ever would have dreamed:  Since Henry served time for robbing a bank he never robbed, Henry reasons that the only way to set things right is to actually rob the bank.

At this point, it may seem like we're heading into very familiar territory, but although Henry's Crime certainly features elements of typical heist films, Henry's Crime itself is far from typical, especially for films of this genre.  For one, the movie isn't afraid to feature quiet moments of observation.  For another, Henry himself is an intriguing character, never going where most movie characters would in similar situations.  For example (and here I feature a minor spoiler, but only to illustrate the nature of Henry's character, not in any way that ruins the plot) Henry gets out of prison, heads home, and discovers that his house is now occupied by Joe, one of the two guys who framed Henry in the first place -- and, to add insult to injury, Joe is now married to the wife who left Henry while he was in prison.  Most movies would take all of this and make it a motive for Henry to go on a revenge spree against Joe and his accomplices, but Henry, seeing that Joe is making their wife happy, instead just wishes them both well, and you get the sense that he really means it.  It's not that he's still as clueless as he was back during the bank robbery, it's just that his ex's happiness (they split on good terms) is a higher priority than punishing Joe for wrong-doing.

Now, it may seem like I've explained the whole movie's plot, but believe it or not, all of the preceding is just the set-up.  The plot finally settles in when Henry and Max discover that there used to be an underground tunnel between the bank and the theater next door, and their robbery scheme becomes dependent on access to the theater.  Their solution: get jobs in the theater, where Max starts working as a general "volunteer" and Henry lands the role of Lopakhin in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.

Many scenes from the Chekhov play are featured, which may fool some people into thinking that this movie is a vanity project for Keanu Reeves, a chance to prove he can do the classics.  But here's the thing:  Reeves, who is all too often dismissed as a "bad actor," is actually quite good in this film, both as Henry, and yes, as Lopakhin in the scenes from The Cherry Orchard.  Extra kudos may be necessary due to the unique nature of Reeves's character in the film.  One reason I enjoyed Henry's Crime is because it gave me something new in the Henry Torne character; I've never seen anything like him in the movies, and yet, he comes across as wholly believable.

Other aspects of the film I liked:  James Caan as Max Saltzman, whose role as mentor gradually evolves into partner, then sidekick.  Vera Farmiga as Henry's love interest Julie, an aspiring actress who plays opposite Henry in the Chekhov play, but had already met Henry in what critics love to call a "meet cute."  And I loved how the writers found several lines from the Chekhov play that seem to serve as direct commentary on Henry, Julie, and their circumstances.

Don't get me wrong, Henry's Crime is not a perfect film.  One of my biggest problems with the movie was the Motown soundtrack, with lots of good songs that just didn't seem to mesh with the tone of the film.  My other beef was with the ending, which really, really, really made me want to know what happens next.  But if your biggest beef with a movie is that it leaves you wanting to spend more time with its characters, that's a pretty good sign.