Imaginary Crimes (1994)

Directed by Anthony Drazan. Starring Fairuza Balk, Harvey Keitel, Amber Benson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Elisabeth Moss, Kelly Lynch, Chris Penn, Seymour Cassel, Diane Baker, Annette O’Toole, Richard Venture. [PG]

Easygoing but largely fatalistic family drama of a widowed conman (Keitel) chasing get-rich schemes and duping “investors,” and the consequences that trickle down to his daughters. The story is told through the eyes of the oldest girl (Balk), navigating the awkward teenage years at a prep school that she’s only attending because of her father’s lies and false promises. The perspective should be refreshingly personal, but Balk is too muted in both her performance and narration, the latter of which aims for forlorn and angsty, but more often just sounds spiritless. Keitel is slippery and charismatic, doomed by his incapacity to distinguish between survival and affliction when it comes to caring for his family, and it’s the more fascinating character, carving out more inventive specifics for the familiar character type than that of the sullen but intelligent student. In the end, that sense of familiarity is what makes this thoughtful film as passable as it is unremarkable. Based on a semi-autobiographical account from novelist Sheila Ballantyne.

57/100