Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, a Must See

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Faltering singing star Meg Magrath (Jessica Lange) return home to Hazlehurst, Mississippi for a visit. Her sister Rebecca "Babe" (Sissy Spacek) had just been arrested for shooting her overbearing husband. Her other spinster sister Lenny (Diane Keaton) has been caring for their elderly grandfather who raised the girls after their mother's suicide. The grandfather is in the hospital on his death bed as the court case against Babe moves ahead. Chick Boyle (Tess Harper) is the nosy cousin and Doc Porter (Sam Shepard) is the dashing neighbor.There is an incongruity between the slapstick wacky comedic tone and the darkness of the material. They work together seamlessly in the great black comedies. In this case, I am conflicted about the shooting incident. The carefree attitude about the case seems out of touch with the seriousness of the charge. The simple fix should be that Babe only fires a warning shot. The husband can still over-reach by demanding attempted murder charges but the girls would be well within their rights to take the case lightly. Anyways, the mother's suicide provides plenty of dark material all by itself. The lax attitude is a cause of annoyance to me. Otherwise, these are great actresses and I do love their chemistry. They have easy sisterly relationships and their back-and-forth are great. I just dislike the careless attitude towards shooting the husband.

Crimes of the Heart Based on the successful play this film gathered an ensemble of some of the most talented actors and actresses of our time, which includes Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Tess Harper, Diane Keaton, and Jessica Lange. Taking place in the south, we follow the story of a family's relationship and how they are dealing with their sister shooting her husband. With the strong female cast we can't help but to feel their pain through their emotions, relationship with each other, and how they deal with life. Great strong character choices, yet sisters with something even greater in common....love of family, and loyalty. There are many lessons to learn in this film and one of the most important is you can't turn your back on your family, even when you run away they will be there for you. The acting is superb, the honesty is great and in all a wonderful film to see. A true classic and if you haven't seen the play, read it or rented it.....do it now...you won't be disappointed. My vote for this film is 8 out of 10.

GREAT little movie for somebody who will actually pay attention to it. Personally, I really enjoyed the story line of this movie. Kinda like "Steele Magnolias", "Bigger", "Rosewood", "The Color Purple" (just name a few) combined all into a certain type of setting. It just went to show the ignorance of our pasts. Each actress played an excellent role, and whoever chose them did a wonderful job of doing so. Got MY thumbs up!! To those of you who rated it low, SHAME ON YOU! Too Bad this measly little housewife can give a better review that you can. TRADE ME jobs! You can come here to my house and make sure the kids are taken care of, the military husband is cared for and the bills are paid, and I'LL go to sit and watch movies and get paid for it. Even Siskel and Ebert sucked at what they did!! Why do we even listen to you?

POSSIBLE SPOILERS.This movie is classified as a "comedy" but depicts real-life behaviours of people when subjected to suicide of a parent.The three main characters, sisters, each deal with their childhood issues in their individualistic manners.One is withdrawn, shy, and non-assertive as an adult, believes she is defective because of the ignorance of her grandfather in regard to a minor medical problem, and afraid of relationships with men.Another is a chain-smoking alcoholic who hated her father, probably for more reasons than were depicted in the movie, has a long string of men whom she never allows herself to become genuinely close with, and suffers a temporary mental breakdown.The third sister married a controlling and abusive man at her age 18 years, suffers from loneliness and suicidal ideologies, and finally snaps enough to shoot her husband due to his abusiveness.The movie is a triumph in its illustration of accurate human behaviours and reactions to traumatic events and depicts the seriousness of those situations with humour. Additionally, it accurately depicts denial in operation.