User Reviews

*One fairly minor spoiler ahead*

There's a very good story in here. I wouldn't doubt that the book is very good. However the screenplay, perhaps as well as the direction here really doesn't do the full story justice. Too much of the story is told from such an overly cynical and somewhat ignorant perspective of the older daughter by narration. Essentially this aspect alone robs the film of its overall effectiveness of being an entirely convincing film. Instead, much of the story the film tries to deliver through the narration, does not reasonably meet the actual story presented. So overall I have to say that while the film is decent, and does have a good story within it, this telling of it overall is not entirely effective enough. It's impossible to fully buy into, unless you care not to think about it much at all I suppose. I also have an issue with the part where child services takes the younger daughter away. If the oldest is 18, which she was, there should never be such a reason to do this. Unless there was some known reason why she could not care for the younger sister, which no reason of this is ever shown or even talked about at all in the film.

It really is too bad, because mostly I really enjoyed the story, and what the director and cast did here. Too bad the narration is not better written here to fit in better with the full story. It could've worked really well, and this would've been a really good little film, mainly if there were only less cynicism and narrowness of perspective in the narration.

5/10.

Sonya Weiler (Fairuza Balk) is starting private school. Her mother Valery Weiler (Kelly Lynch) wanted a better life which never materialized and she died eight years ago. Her father Ray Weiler (Harvey Keitel) is a functioning drunk who sells his 'investment opportunity' to unsuspecting suckers. Greta Weiler (Elisabeth Moss) is her younger sister. Mr. Webster (Vincent D'Onofrio) is her new teacher and she is befriended by classmate Margaret (Amber Benson).

Originally, I gave this a four mostly due to Keitel's infuriating character. One hopes for some light moments to break up the frustration of watching his sleazy schemes. That never comes. It's a frustrating watch as I'm forced to take constant breaks. Sonya needs more screen time and story. She needs a boy interest and more to do with Margaret. Her father needs less screen time. The audience doesn't actually need to know the details about his scheme. We already know everything when he gets Sonya to lie for him. Quite frankly, we don't need all the Sonya narration. I do appreciate this a bit more after watching this again after twenty some odd years. It's still a five but I do see Keitel's great performance.

Harvey Keitel has spent most of the last half century playing rough, heavy-duty roles, mainly in arthouse cinema. His most famous ones are Martin Scorsese movies, but there have been others. One that's worth seeing is Anthony Drazan's "Imaginary Crimes". Keitel plays a man in 1962 Portland who resorts to con jobs and get-rich-quick schemes to provide for his daughters.

I understand that Sheila Ballantyne's novel, on which the movie is based, is semi-autobiographical. I haven't read it, but the movie makes the Pacific Northwest of the '50s and '60s look like a dismal place. Either way, the cast all puts on fine performances. Aside from Keitel, the cast includes Kelly Lynch, Fairuza Balk and Elisabeth Moss (having never heard of her before "The Handmaid's Tale", I didn't know that she was a child star).

Worth seeing.

Imaginary Crimes features one of the world's best "unknown" actresses Fairuza Balk (Personal Velocity, Almost Famous, The Craft, American History X) and the immensely talented Harvey Keitel.

Keitel plays a recently widowed hustler/con man who is left trying to raise his two daughters, teenager Balk and her 12 year old sister. He doesn't have a clue about raising kids. Worse, he has to hide his shady business dealings from them.

Balk is a natural born writer, who is befriended by her English teacher (Vincent D'Onofrio). He provides the supportive father figure that Keitel cannot.

Imaginary Crimes is a coming of age story. It's a small, quiet film, but very effective. The acting is superb and Balk more than holds her own with the great Keitel. Highly recommended for the outstanding performances of Balk, Keitel and D'Onofrio. Balk is one of my favorite actresses.

To anyone who has ever had a disappointing father yet still was able to get past his shortcomings and love him this is your movie. The power to love is what this movie is about. It is not a cliché type movie though. The power of love does not include forgiveness nor going into agreement with or going along with the person. It is the ability to love what goodness there is available in a person despite all the reasons (their bad characteristics) one should not. This movie is a tear jerker but I found it very uplifting as well. Keitel, D'Onofrio and especially Fairuza Balk are all fantastic. The direction and writing are perfect. It is a rare movie. Because I wouldn't change one bit of it. I'd rate it in my top 25 of all time. It's that good.

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

This is a great movie. I'm amazed that it got made and done so well. First kudos go to Sheila Ballantyne who wrote the novel. A story like this cannot be made up in committee or by hiring the hottest screen writer in town. It has to be lived. There's no question that Ballantyne lived it. And then it has to be understood in the light of love before it can be shared with us. And she did that.

Second kudos go to Tony Drazan who directed and interpreted. It can be seen that he loved the story and he wanted it to be beautiful, and he made it so.

He picked the dearest, sweetest girls to play the parts of Sonya and Greta at various ages. And he had to have the right man for their father, a flawed man, like all of us, a man doing the best he can, a man with values that don't really work, a man who lost his young wife to cancer and was left to raise his two daughters alone, a man like Arthur Miller's Willie Loman who had big dreams never realized, a man neither hero not villain; in short a man who had to be played with delicacy and without maudlin sentiment. Harvey Keitel fit the part, that of a schemer and a dreamer and a self-deluded hustling con man, and did a fantastic, flawless job.

Fairuza Balk, who played Sonya was wonderful, and Elizabeth Moss as Greta was adorable beyond expression, and so beautifully directed. The girl who played the young Sonya was not only excellent, but looked enough like Fairuza Balk to be her younger sister: perfect casting. And Kelly Lynch who had a limited role as the mother was exquisite.

The interaction between the father and the daughters was painfully veracious, filled with real- life tension and heart-breaking disappointments, but done without abuse and without any of the dysfunctional family sicknesses so often expressed these days. We see his failure as a father on one level, and yet in the end we see through the eyes and the voice of Sonya a greater truth: in spite of his weaknesses he actually succeeded as a father. In fact we see that whether he knew it or not, the one thing that he did right in his life, although he wavered plenty, was bringing up his girls against the great odds of his defective character. And the love shown him by his daughters, so beautifully projected by both Balk and Moss, was wonderful to experience since it is so seldom seen these days when the usual style is to trash men and their part in the family. And the nonexploitive, nurturing and loving role of Sonya's English teacher, played with a fine delicacy by Vincent D'Onfrio, was a much-needed change from the usual cinematic use of teachers as sexual lechers. In this movie we can see that men are people too. (Hello!)

I should mention that the screenplay by Kristine Johnson and Davia Nelson was carefully crafted to showcase the story dramatically, and to warn you that this is a tear jerker. It starts a little slow, and seems a touch old fashioned, but stay with it: it's a beautiful movie, one the best I've ever seen.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

In my opinion 'Imaginary Crimes' along with 'Fight Club' are the best films of the 90's. 'Imaginary Crimes' may not have the most original story around but it's done to perfection. It tells it's sad story in a way that's never overly depressing and the performances are all top notch, with the standouts being Fairuza Balk and Harvey Keitel who are both totally amazing. Specials mention most go to Anthony Drazan for his superb direction especially in the scene where Balk refuses to go with Keitel to Reno. Anyone who watches this film without getting a tear in the eye must be made of stone. 10/10

Is the wish for love greater than the need to hate? An interesting question posed by, and the complexity of which is examined in this film about the effects of the decisions we make during the course of our lives, and how those decisions ultimately affect our families and loved ones. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Sheila Ballantyne, `Imaginary Crimes,' directed by Anthony Drazan, stars Harvey Keitel as a widowed father raising two young daughters in 1950s Oregon. Ray Weiler (Keitel) is no role model for fathers, however. In fact, in the words of the author, `Never has a man less equipped for parenthood tried so hard.' And failed, she should have added. Ray is not a `bad' man, per se, but he's a dreamer and a schemer, following one deal of a lifetime after another that, up until the day she died, kept Valery (Kelly Lynch) and their daughters, Sonya (Fairuza Balk) and Greta (Elisabeth Moss) living in a one room basement apartment. To the very end, Valery was always a `technicality' away from what she wanted most: A home of her own. And when she died, that dream apparently died with her. Ray's dreams, however, continued; as did the dark clouds his lifestyle cast over the Weilers, beneath which they were forced to live every day without hope or respite. A dreary life, indeed, for two young girls with nowhere to turn.

Told through the reminiscences of Sonya (with Balk providing effective voice-over narration), the story unfolds with the help of flashbacks which reflect the turmoil of young Sonya and Greta's lives with Ray. The sequences involving Valery are especially poignant, and presented with such care and subtly that it enables you to feel and share her every disappointment-- and there were many. You also share her joy at winning a simple raffle at the neighborhood movie theater, where she would escape with Sonya every Wednesday night. And when Sonya points out the fact that her mother cried at every film, no matter what it was, it says volumes about Valery's state of mind and the despair and unhappiness with which she lived, yet masked so convincingly in front of Sonya. It's also easy to understand the bond between the sisters, formed as a means of steeling themselves against the unconscionable neglect of their father. Though not physically abusive, the pain he inflicted on his daughters psychologically was immeasurable. Yet they stood by him; perhaps because they had nowhere else to go and no one to whom they could turn.

Filmed on location in Oregon, the film has a wistful, almost dreamlike quality that successfully reflects the era it depicts, as well as the overall mood of the story, aided in no small part by the atmosphere director Drazan creates. He renders a touching sense of injustice that keeps the viewer acutely aware of the helpless and seemingly inescapable situation in which the girls are forced to remain, and he makes the girls so readily accessible that it is easy to emphasize with them. And it makes you realize that even as big as the world is, everybody lives within their own little part, and it's different for every individual. The world of your next door neighbor may not resemble the world in which you live in any way, shape or form; and because of that, need often goes undetected and want thrives.

As Ray, Harvey Keitel is outstanding, giving a restrained and understated performance that allows you to like him and hate him at the same time. This is a complex character that Keitel develops extremely well, showing you the schemer and the con-man, but also giving you something of an indication of what lies beneath. This is a man capable of disciplined introspection, yet too selfish to do what he must know is the right thing by his family. He's a man who is past believing in himself, but has actually fallen victim to his own con and is unable to let loose of his irresponsible dreams. It's a strong performance, through which he paints the picture of a desperate man, who has no idea of just how desperate he is until it's too late. And the saddest thing about it is the effect it has on Sonya and Greta.

Giving an affecting performance, as well, is the young Fairuza Balk, whose dark beauty and intensity make her perfect for the role of Sonya. She has such expressive eyes that they veritably serve as a window into the soul of her character, which nevertheless seems to emerge from a very private place, and one that gives it definition. Like Keitel, Balk's performance is rather restrained, which gives even more power to her already mesmerizing screen presence. She makes you understand how her circumstances have affected her, which she subtly conveys in the way she relates to those around her, including Greta. There's a sense of the exceptional about Balk, who in an industry filled with young actors seemingly just off the production line, remains unique and has served herself and her career well by exploring some diverse characters in such films as `American History X,' `Things To do In Denver When You're Dead,' `The Waterboy' and possibly her most definitive role, as that of the young witch in `The Craft.' Sonya is one of her more down-to-earth characters, and she delivers her quite well.

The supporting cast includes Vincent D'Onofrio (Mr. Webster), Diane Baker (Abigail Tate), Chris Penn (Jarvis), Amber Benson (Margaret), Annette O'Toole (Ginny) and Seymour Cassel (Eddie). Thought provoking and emotionally involving, `Imaginary Crimes' will take you to a dark place, and it's one that may be all too familiar to some who see this film. This is no happily-ever-after fairy tale, but a very real look at some hard facts about the world in which we live and the people who surround us, and the necessity of reaching out to those who just may be in need. 9/10.

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.

Fairies Balk is SO underrated! This girl could be molded to any part out there, and with the right direction, her star would shine all the way into her 80's. She's unbelievable good!

Can't belive this movie has under 6.5. How can anyone give this film under 7? 😳 Fairuza Balk is impressive here.

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.

I had low expectations when I decided to check this film out. Emotional dramas are normally not my kind of film. But it did not take very long before I was "tuned in". Keitel manages to make the character both disgusting and loving in a great way. Despite the pathetic cons he manages to show Ray's love and caring for his children. The film is also helped by overall tremendous acting, especially by the Sonja-character. The flashbacks are tastefully divided into small parts, which help the "suspense" to last during the whole film. In my opinion, Keitel's acting is almost as good as his part in BAD LIEUTENANT, which is absolutely stunning. It is actually a rather standard plot, not very far from DEATH OF A SALESMAN. But as mentioned before, good acting gives it a 'feelgood'...er...feel. 8/10

Being a big fan of Fairuza Balk's this movie done earlier in her career shows how talented she really is. It seems Fairuza is not a well known actress unless you mention The Craft or The Waterboy and people will say "oh her, she has done alot of movies?" Fairuza and Harvey Keitel play off one another so well as father and daughter. This movie is well written, well casted and well acted out. Sure there are a few boring parts but that goes with a drama type movie. Watch for a younger Amber Benson who is on Buffy The Vampire Slayer now as Tara. Also Vincent D'Onofrio plays a really good part as well. Crimes is a bit of a tear jerker and I have to say this movie Solidifies that Fairuza Balk is talented and that she deserves more credit than she gets. Christopher Penn has a small role in this as well. A few known faces in this one. But this sleeper hit is worth the time to rent. Chicks will like it for sure.

Everything about this film hinges on Fairuza Balk. She's an actress I'd encountered previously on occasion (Return to Oz, American History X, Almost Famous), but was never made aware of her deeper talent until now. Sonya, her character, narrates the film with a profound and uncomplicated insight. Sheila Ballantyne's writing provides the film with characters of great reality. Anthony Drazan, a director who's done almost nothing else, displays an excellent understanding of actors and internal conflicts. Speaking of the actors, there are a number of great performances on display here. Vincent D'Onofrio is always welcome, playing here a literary-minded school-teacher. Harvey Keitel is great, although playing firmly within type. Kelly Lynch is wondrous, appearing in flashbacks as Sonya's mother.

"Imaginary Crimes" really moved me. It's one of not too many films that offer events and characters free of mere plot points and chronological events. The passages of the story (starting as a series of loosely connected stories, but slowly progressing to a more coherent tale) build in a believable way, cementing into a depiction that shows all sides of the story. Like water seeping into every open crack, there are no holes or blank spaces left. Please see this film.

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.

Fairuza Balk absolutely charms as a brave young girl, a clever, loyal daughter and sibling responsible for holding things together. Harvey Keitel is a wastrel, thief, and a con artist who shouldn't be raising two young daughters but you both love him and hate him. The film and its characters talk you all around the emotional merry go'round that is their life. There's hope one moment and disappointment the next. Balk gives a stand out performance as the young herione upon whom every responsibility falls as she tries to keep herself and her younger sister in school by maintaining the subterfuge of a normal homelife why her father is off who knows where. It's a great story and you'll love it. It's a shame Fairuza didn't get better parts after. Going Goth later on did nothing for the charm she really possesses.

(1994) Imaginary Crimes PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA/ CRIME

This is one of those films that if you actually read the reviews can deter to see this film since this film has no memorable stars, the plot line has really been done before on other films and the actors are virtually unbeknownst or unpopular to the mainstream crowd! Decided to watch this film because I was totally oblivious about what it's about except that I knew it was a drama and that Roger Ebert as well as other notable critics gave it a thumbs up! Just like you can't judge a book by it's cover and with the right mood, I decided to check it out. And I have to say that it's quite well done adapted from the book by Sheila Ballantyne as the story is narrated by the central character Sonya- a teenager's point of view, and it happens to involve Ray Weiler (Harvey Keital) since he's her father! As the story progresses it tends to reveal itself each time without picturing somebody as being the bad guy! There is also some similarities between this film and "Benjamin Button" except this one actually has a credible story which I can relate to with characters that still exist in real life such as tele- marketers, some who may also have families of their own like the title character Harvey Keital has portrayed in this film and is still happening as we speak.