Suburban Sentencing

Crime and Punishment in Suburbia Dir: Rob Schmid Starring Monica Keena Michael Ironside Vincent Kartheiser James DeBello 2000 R, 100 m RATING: 6 out of 10

CRIME OF PASSION:  Vincenet Kartheiser and Monica Keena discuss their unremarkable performances in this update of Dostoyevsky's classic work.

Crime and Punishment in Suburbia is just slightly above the normal teen character study of teen angst,  murder and guilt.  It's bogged down by some unevenness, some scenes feeling genuine, others feeling as if they were lifted from the latest MTV video. Crime and Punishment stars Monica Kenna as a popular high school student dating jock boyfriend James DeBello and yearned for by loner/outcast Vincent Kartheiser.  Her parents' marriage (Ellen Barkin and Michael Ironside) is falling apart, and Keena is unwittingly caught in the middle of their violent breakup.  After an altercation with her father, she decides to put him out of his misery. The story is nothing new or groundbreaking, but the film is elevated by some genuinely disturbing scenes as well as a few provocative performances.  Ironsider's pathetic father is a powerhouse of brooding rage, and DeBello as the naive, dumb football player boyfriend eminates a tragic quality, bringing compassion to his character: this isnt the stereotypical dumb jock, it's just a young man trying to desperately grasp onto a situation he simply can't understand.  These two performances bring the most strength to the film, overshdowing the sometime coardboard performances by vengeful doe-eyed daugher Keena and genericallly weird Kartheiser. Crime and Punishment is no breath-taking thrill ride, nor is it a slow-paced potboiler.   With a somtimes raw, indie feel to it, but also a sometimes muddled script, it's certainly worth a look, if just or two terrific performances, one from veteran Ironside and the other from newcome DeBello

Josh's Movie Minute Home