Crimes of the Heart (1986)

Review by All Movie Guide
Director Bruce Beresford seems to have a special affinity for the American South. In projects such as Tender Mercies (1983), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), and Rich in Love, he's used the region's more leisurely pace to explore relationships in films that thrive on a minimum of plotting. That certainly describes his adaptation of Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, in which the three sisters of a rather eccentric Mississippi family return to the family manse for a reunion. None of the three have had much luck with men or marriage, and their humorous commiseration about their sometimes scandalous past and affirmation of their relationship with each other are the core of the film. Yet, the Southern Gothic black comedy aspects of the piece, such as Babe's (Sissy Spacek) reaction to having shot her husband, and the suicide of their mother, which might have worked well as anecdotes on the stage, sit less easily within the realistic framework established by Beresford. Henley seems to be using this tone to keep the audience at a safe distance, and one comes away wishing she had probed a bit more deeply. Still, this is a very funny film, and the three actresses work wonderfully as an ensemble. Sam Shepard is good as a former lover of Meg's (Jessica Lange), as is Tess Harper as an irritable next-door neighbor. Cameraman Dante Spinotti also does wonders with the soft Mississippi light. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide