Imaginary Crimes (1994)

I'm a fan of small movies with great characters and this one is just that. It's a slice of life featuring a single father, Ray Weiler, and his two young daughters. Ray is someone we've all known in our own lives, good intentions but often irresponsible.This is one of Harvey Keitel's finest performances and he's matched with two excellent young actresses. Fairuza Balk who plays the eldest daughter, is particularly impressive. Keitel is far more nuanced than one might expect from his more familiar action roles and by the end of the film, I couldn't imagine anyone else playing Ray Weiler. He's sympathetic but wrapped in a bit of sadness.Yes, the pace is sometimes a bit slow but it all unfolds nicely and the characters are so well drawn that the plot is almost secondary. The script has an autobiographical feel and that may account for its authenticity.Despite his faults, Ray Weiler is someone I glad I got to know.

Follows the story of widowed father Ray Weiler (Harvey Kietel) trying to make it as a con artist in the 1950's. The story is told from the point of view of his daughter Sonya (Fairuza Balk) as she tries to struggle through her unenviable life while protecting her younger sister Greta (Elizabeth Moss) from their harsh environment. There's also the mandatory appearance by Vincent D'Onofrio, playing Sonya's English teacher who's actually more of a father to her than Ray ever was.Balk and Kietel are great in this. Kietel did the slimy, overbearing father role better than I thought he would. Balk was also very good as his disillusioned daughter; they had good dad-kid chemistry, in a disfunctional sort of way. I thought the script and story were great, too. It was very real, like it could have been based on someone's memoirs. Balk's monologue right before the credits role is the perfect ending for this sort of story. A film worth renting.

Everyone who thinks Harvey can only inhabit violent, suffering Martin Scorcese type stories will be amazed at his affecting and emotional turn here, as a father struggling to raise his 2 daughters. Guilt and regret figure prominently in the plot line, which is narrated from a diary by the wonderful Fairuka Balk. Kelly Lynch gives a brief but sad performance as the mother. One of Kietel's best contains his usual trademark shouting scenes but overall: his least bloody and tortured character is also his finest time on film.

Spell Draggy with a capital D. Keitel, as strong as he is, couldn't salvage this disaster, neither could pretty Fairuza Balk. A trite unimaginative story of a loser conman father (Keitel) as he blunders his way through life providing little fathering for his two daughters. Boring, predictable, draggy (oh, that was twice? it deserves it!) News of his ultimate death puts him out of his misery - it's a shame we couldn't have enjoyed the same fate about a hundred minutes earlier. An insult to Willie Loman and Death of a Salesman which this obviously borrowed heavily from. Skip renting it - and if it on TV and you only have one channel, watch the commercials, they have a much higher entertainment value. 2/10