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Crimes of the Heart (1986)
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Synopsis: Director Bruce Beresford's adaptation of Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about three eccentric southern sisters stars Diane Keaton as Lenny Magrath, Jessica Lange as Meg, and Sissy Spacek as Babe. Long separated, they convene for Lenny's birthday at the family mansion in the... Director Bruce Beresford's adaptation of Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about three eccentric southern sisters stars Diane Keaton as Lenny Magrath, Jessica Lange as Meg, and Sissy Spacek as Babe. Long separated, they convene for Lenny's birthday at the family mansion in the Deep South, where Lenny cares for her ailing grandfather. Lenny, the oldest sister, anxious about her shrunken ovary, has never married, nor has Meg, with her underwhelming singing career and her long string of boyfriends. As for Babe, she's fresh out of jail, having shot her husband, a senator, for objecting to her affair with a teenage boy. Given the family's long history of adultery, scandal, and tragedy, including their mother's well-publicized suicide, the reunited siblings have much to talk about. And since this is a family reunion, it's natural that nasty cousin Chick Boyle (Tess Harper) should appear to give the sisters a piece of her mind. Keaton, Lange, and Spacek share a wonderful chemistry in this dark comedy that's equal parts laughter and tears. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Tess Harper, Sam Shepard
Reviews
Using eccentric personalities situated in seemingly ordinary locales, Beresford's comedy is still too theatrical to qualify as cinema, but it's well acted by Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and particularly Sissy Spacek, as three Chekhovian sisters.
Crimes of the Heart is a bittersweet comedy that is funny, inventive and affecting.
Okay, the Oscar-winning actresses chew the scenery, but if you can't do that in a movie about crackpot Southerners, when can you?


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