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CRIME STORY (2021)
Director: Adam Lipsius Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Mira Sorvino, D.W. Moffett, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Cress Williams, Alejandra Rivera Flaviá, Aiden Malik, Joanna Walchuk, Megan McFarland, David Perez MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:38 Release Date: 8/13/21 (limited; digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 12, 2021 Writer/director Adam Lipsius probably didn't consider the results of casting Richard Dreyfuss, who's currently in his 70s, as a retired mobster who decides to go back into action. Crime Story revolves around an older and visibly limping man taking down men who are decades younger and clearly stronger than him. This isn't a slight against Dreyfuss, since age and everything that accompanies it come to us all, but every time the actor's Ben Myers physically confronts an opponent here, it just looks silly. There are other problems with Lipsius' movie, which is an overly convoluted variation on a simple revenge tale and finally arrives at a note of nihilism that's more a shrug of narrative defeat than a statement of intent. Ben's house is robbed by criminals, and all of his most valuable possessions, locked away in a hidden safe, are stolen. The man once had inordinate power in this city, and now, he is alone, has to care for his wife (played by Megan McFarland) with dementia, and has been diagnosed with leukemia. Ben is determined to find the thieves, make them pay, and get back his possessions. That's the simple part, complicated by his two daughters. One is a police detective, played by Mira Sorvino, who's also head of security for a political campaign. The other, played by Joanna Walchuk, is dying in hospice care and has two sons who need financial help. There are multiple threads here—Ben's investigation into the robbery, the one daughter's preparation for a campaign event, the two kids, a single mother who had an affair with the politician (played by D.W. Moffett) and whom Ben spared from death. Lipsius' screenplay doesn't so much juggle them as it lazily tosses them in the air simultaneously, catching whichever are the biggest. There's one major twist, as Ben kills a couple of the robbers (unconvincingly and conveniently, considering there's always a struggle, but inconveniently, since he somehow kills so quickly that he can't get information), and it could set up a rather complex conflict within a family devastated by the sins of the father and the resentment of his children. Instead, Crime Story has Ben enacting a plan of questionable motives and methods, resulting in a lot more unnecessary death and suffering. None of it matters, the movie argues, which is correct—only not for the reasons it thinks. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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