Keanu Reeves plays a clueless toll-booth attendant in director Malcolm Venville "Henry's Crime" who gets arrested for being an accomplice in a bank robbery. Henry Torne (Keanu Reeves of "The Matrix") refuses to inform on the two men who actually did rob the bank while he awaited their return in the getaway car, and Henry receives a prison sentence. In prison, Henry bunks with a confidence artist Max Saltzman (James Caan of "The Godfather") who enjoys prison. Indeed, Max enjoys prison so much that when he goes before the review board for parole, he makes threats so that the prison officials won't release him. After spending some time in prison and trying to make everybody believe that he had nothing to do with the bank robbery, Henry has a change of heart. He has heard Max ridicule him about the fact that he—Henry—is doing the time for not doing the crime. Anyway, Henry wants to get out so he can do the crime. He convinces the review board that he is safe for public consumption, and they release him from prison. As it turns out one of the bank robbers who got away, Joe (Danny Hoch of "Black Hawk Down"), has moved in with Henry's wife, Debbie (Judy Greer), and he has gotten Debbie pregnant. Meantime, the other criminal involved with the opening bank robbery, Eddie Vibes (Fisher Stevens of "Short Circuit"), has hightailed it out of Buffalo, New York, where the bank robbery occurred. After Henry gets out of jail, he is taking a leak in the bathroom at a downtown restaurant. He saw an old newspaper front page about the bank that he was convicted for robbing. It seems that bootleggers back in the days of Prohibition used a tunnel between the local play house and the bank to move their liquor and store it in the vault. Armed with this historical insight, Henry motivates Max to behave during his next parole review, and Max gets out of jail. They decide to rob the bank next to the theater, but they realize that it is going to require them being on the inside. Max learns that the boarded up entrance to the tunnel is in a dressing room. Incredibly, Henry auditions for the role when it becomes available, and the crazy European director, Darek Millodragovic (Peter Stormare of "The Big Lebowski"), decides to cast Henry in the role. At the same time, Henry has fallen in love with the leading lady in the play, Julie Ivanova (Vera Farmiga of "The Conjuring"), and they become a couple. All of this transpires while Max and Henry are excavating the old tunnel. "Henry's Crime" is a bank robbery caper where the good guys get away with the crime. Simultaneously, it is a comedy, too, but the events in it seem drawn out because it resembles an art film rather than a loud, brash, comedy caper. The performances are all good, especially Caan as the inmate. Actually, "Henry's Crime" reminded me of an earlier James Caan bank robbery saga "Harry and Walter Go To New York." This lightweight, sometimes suspenseful saga is entertaining nonsense.
Review of Henry's Crime
