A Crime ...

A Crime

Staring: Harvey Keitel, Emmanuelle Béar and Norman Reedus

The story of love lost through violence, a relationship desired to heal all wounds and the length one woman will go too to get the man she views as perfect.

I have read that this is considered to be Norman Reedus' best performance ever. This was verified by fans. I might have to agree.

Vincent Harris (Reedus) comes home in time to find his beloved wife murdered just minutes before. His life shattered, he is left with a puppy he didn't even know for four weeks was his, a gift she had picked up just that afternoon as a surprise to him. "Vickie" becomes his focus as Vincent trains Vickie as a race dog for the next three years. When he is not training him, Vincent is trying to solve his wife’s murder. Living in an apartment across from Alice Parker (Emmanuelle Béar), Vincent helps her, is there for her, and though he is aware of her desire for him, it never truly crosses his mind the lengths she will go to possess him.

"Is he your boyfriend?" she is asked.

"He will be as soon as I solved this crime."

Her idea for solving the crime is to set up a taxi driver, Roger Culkin (Keitel), though manipulation, sex, set ups – really bad, bad things that eventually get poor Roger found guilty in the eyes of vigilante justice and Roger goes into the river in the trunk of his own taxi.

Vincent’s affair with Alice begins, even as Roger comes back from the dead.

“Out of all the cabbies you wanted to set up for the murder, you picked me …?”

Tell tale line.

And it is soon evident that as conniving as Alice had been to win Vincent, her love was genuine and she will do anything to protect him.

Not a high powered film with extravagant emotions, but more of a slow simmer with excellent performances by all the major players. The ending, maybe a little bit more predictable than I would normally like, but not in the least bit distracting. Vincent was a quiet man who loved deeply and in the end, Vickie won first place in his race and Vincent and Alice were able to start a new life.