Rating of
3/4
True Crime, Meaningful Film
Chris Kavan - wrote on 05/11/08
Whereas Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door takes the same material and makes it brutal, even sickening, An American Crime sticks more towards the fact and is more subtle, though no less horrifying in the end.
It's tough watching Ellen Page, looking more fragile than ever, succumbing to harsher and harsher punishment, ultimately leading to outright torture, mostly at the hands of fellow neighborhood children. Catherine Keener can take her place amongst stone-cold villains as an unbalanced single mom - what starts out as being protective of her children descends into madness. It is all the much harder to watch knowing it is based on a real person.
The biggest fault I find with An American Crime is the switching from the court hearing and flashing back to the events. I realize the movie is based on testimonial, but all the switching blunts the impact. Certain scenes are hard to watch, but what makes this truly stand out is that so many people could have prevented this: the neighbors who heard the screams, the children who took part, or watched a young girl being brutalized - by the time anyone spoke out, it was too little too late and you realized the true tragedy is the inaction of so many people.
