Crime + Punishment in Suburbia
by Rob Schmidt
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ellen Barkin, James DeBello, Michael Ironside, Monica Keena, Vincent KartheiserDirector: Rob Schmidt
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.33:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-01-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Crime + Punishment in Suburbia
Movie Review: Solid acting highlights this intelligent drama
Summary: 3 Stars
To the outside world it seems like Roseann Skolnick (Monica Keena) is your typical privileged teen. She's the head cheerleader who dates a popular football player named Jimmy (James DeBello). Her family lives in a huge mansion in the wealthy part of town. However Roseann lives a far darker existence that comes complete with a drunk step dad who is verbally abusive to his wife. Fred (Michael Ironside) is a bitter drunk whose only satisfaction in life comes from making his wife Maggie (Ellen Barkin) feel miserable. He tortures her every night at the dinner table while a helpless Roseann watches. Maggie wishes he would die and dreams of escaping Fred for good. Outside Roseann's window hides a creepy voyeur named Vincent (Vincent Kartheiser) who snaps roll after roll of film documenting his crush's unhappiness. Vincent longs to be her white knight and when the time is right he plans on rescuing Roseann. At her breaking point Maggie begins an affair with a young man named Chris (Jeffrey Wright) who she meets one night at a club. She sets off a horrible chain of events that begins with rape and ends in a murder that lands Maggie on Death Row. Her entire family is affected by her choices and their lives will be altered forever. The film does a very good job of showing the horrors that take place behind closed doors of seemingly perfect, affluent families. The actors really excel at making these characters believable and sympathetic. Ironside, a veteran of many horror/sci-fi films, is certainly creepy, but his Fred is a man desperate to connect with his stepdaughter. He clearly loves her and her mother but he doesn't know how to express it. Barkin, in a very reserved performance, is heartbreaking as the long suffering wife who saw her chance for escape and took it and who pays the ultimate price. DeBello, a familiar face in many a teen film, is his usual obnoxious and rude self but he actually turns in one of his best performances. He is an extremely supportive, and protective boyfriend to Roseann who is willing to do anything to keep her safe from harm. Unfortunately he's easily manipulated by her and he pays the price for it. My favorite performance is that of Kartheiser. He's terrific as the oddball outsider who shows up to school wearing garlands of garlic to ward off evil spirits. All the teens think they can label him a weirdo and pay him no attention but he is very perceptive of their plight and is the only one offering them any solutions. It's a well made film that raises good points and makes everyone responsible for their actions.
Summary of Crime + Punishment in Suburbia
This contemporary urban fable, loosely based on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, is a gripping and provocative account of a young woman's attempt to permanently end the advances of her abusive stepfather. Starring Monica Keena ("Dawson's Creek"), Vincent Kartheiser (Another Day In Paradise) and James DeBello (American Pie), along with veterans Ellen Barkin (Drop Dead Gorgeous) and Michael Ironside (The Perfect Storm), Crime + Punishment in Suburbia is a deeply affecting and utterly disturbing tale of betrayal and redemption. Rosanne (Keena) is a cheerleader who dates a football player (DeBello) and gets drunk at parties. But she's also akiller. She convinces her boyfriend to sneak out of a pep rally for a date with destiny, revenge and the brutal murder of her abusive stepfather. But once she's gotten away with murder, Rosanne is shocked to learn that her mother's untimely arrival at the scene of the crime has put her behind bars!Now Rosanne must struggle with her inner demons. Can she do the right thing or will her Mom take the fall for Rosanne's vicious crime?This very loose update of Dostoyevsky will never gain the original's classic status, but on its own unseemly little terms it's an efficient genre flick. Trapped in a suburban Hell with an alcoholic stepfather (the always nasty Michael Ironside), suffering, molested high-schooler Rosanne (Monica Keena) begs her quarterback boyfriend (James DeBello) to help her bump him off. Things get complicated with the involvement of her weary mother (scrappy Ellen Barkin, still waiting for a decent role) and a sensitive, outsider classmate (Vincent Kartheiser). Larry Gross's script has Barkin's selfish character acting too much the idiot, though you won't hear a bad note from her or the rest of the appealing young cast (the invaluable Jeffrey Wright also has a nice bit as Barkin's lover). Even if director Rob Schmidt has too much of an MTV sensibility (showy cuts, booming soundtrack, etc.) and indulges himself with the gruesome murder, his glossy sensitivity to teen trauma redeems some of the pulp. The film can be seen in widescreen on DVD, as well as heard in French and Spanish. --Steve Wiecking
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