Other Titles • Crime and Punishment in Suburbia • Crime + Punishment in Suburbia (2000) • Crime and Punishment in High School (1999)
Synopses for Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000)
1.
This very loose update of Dostoyevsky will never gain the original's classic status, but on its own unseemly little terms it's an efficient genre flick. Trapped in a suburban Hell with an alcoholic stepfather (the always nasty Michael Ironside), suffering, molested high-schooler Rosanne (Monica Keena) begs her quarterback boyfriend (James DeBello) to help her bump him off. Things get complicated with the involvement of her weary mother (scrappy Ellen Barkin, still waiting for a decent role) and a sensitive, outsider classmate (Vincent Kartheiser). Larry Gross's script has Barkin's selfish character acting too much the idiot, though you won't hear a bad note from her or the rest of the appealing young cast (the invaluable Jeffrey Wright also has a nice bit as Barkin's lover). Even if director Rob Schmidt has too much of an MTV sensibility (showy cuts, booming soundtrack, etc.) and indulges himself with the gruesome murder, his glossy sensitivity to teen trauma redeems some of the pulp. The film can be seen in widescreen on DVD, as well as heard in French and Spanish. --Steve Wiecking
(18 votes)
2.
This contemporary urban fable, loosely based on Dostoyesky's Crime And Punishment, is a gripping and provocative account of a young woman's attempt to permanently end the advances of her abusive step-father. Starring Monica Keena (Dawson's Creek), Vincent Kartheiser (another Day In Paradise) and James DeBello (American Pie), along with veterans Ellen Barkin (Drop Dead Gorgeous) and Michael Ironside (The Perfect Storm), Crime & Punishment In Suburbia is a deeply affecting and utterly disturbing tale of betrayal and redemption.
Rosanne (Keena) is a cheerleader who dates a football player (DeBello) and gets drunk at parties. But She's also a killer. She convinces her boyfriend to sneak out of a pep rally for a date with destiny, revenge…and the brutal murder of her abusive stepfather. But once she's gotten away with murder, Rosanne is hocked to learn that her mother's untimely arrival at the scene of the crime has put her behind bars! Now Rosanne must struggle with her inner demons. Can she do the right thing or will her Mom take the fall for Rosanne's vicious crime?
(17 votes)
3.
In director Robert Schmidt's adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (the "in Suburbia" is Schmidt's addition), the role of the protagonist is played not by a troubled young man who kills his landlady, but by a teenage girl (Monica Keena) who murders an older man who has been molesting her. The punishment, rather than a police interrogation and exile to Siberia, is a series of psychological discussions with a common cop who has a romantic interest in her. An interesting take on an old story, the film raises the nagging moral questions: When is a crime justifiable? and How does the punishment fit the crime?
(16 votes)
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