Revisiting "Crimes of the Heart"
Wednesday, June 7, 2017 at 3:45PM In honor of Diane Keaton’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award tomorrow, here’s Eric Blume with a look back at Crimes of the Heart (1986)
Beth Henley won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for her play Crimes of the Heart, and five years later it was retooled by Henley herself in a film version directed by Bruce Beresford. The film teamed three of the biggest actresses of the 80’s: Diane Keaton as the oldest spinster sister Lenny, Jessica Lange as saucy middle child Meg, and Sissy Spacek as spacey youngest Babe.
Keaton is forced to carry the film for the first ten minutes out of the gate, and she’s strapped with some clunky exposition. She feels tentative, which is partly aligned with her character, but in a way where she feels not fully assured, like she’s finding her way into the role. Her Southern accent doesn’t come easily to her, and it takes her a while to learn how to make the accent soar to funny dimensions.
But then ten minutes in, she has her first scene with Lange, and the film starts to find its groove...
Keaton and Lange load the segment with forty years of sisterhood, capturing a lot of the dynamics which will continue to play out throughout the film. Still, both Keaton and the movie feel reigned-in for the first half hour, unable to escape the staginess. But as Beresford begins to take advantage of the family house as a real space, it all starts to feel like a movie, and the actresses get to do their thing.
Does anyone explode comically better than Diane Keaton? Think of her peerless breakdown about her empty water well in Baby Boom, or her prolonged crying jag in Something’s Gotta Give. When Keaton lets go, with abandon, she hits incomparable heights. Her instincts for comedy are so natural, and so unique, they simply kick in. She’s never “playing anything comically” and in fact the beauty of her acting is that she plays the dramatic stakes in a comedy, fully in character.
Keaton is gifted several of these humdingers in Crimes of the Heart. Her biggest and funniest is during a tirade against Lange, when Meg eats “one little bite out of each piece of candy” in a box that is Lenny’s only birthday present. As is often true in real life, this small incident unleashes much larger resentments and angers. Keaton has a seven-minute stretch where she scales up and down, out of control about a box of candy, losing her point, rebuilding it, fleeing, breaking down, and then storming off again in a funny comic run. You can’t imagine any other actress pulling it off better.
Nobody is likely to argue that Crimes of the Heart is a masterpiece, but watching these three great actresses together, deep in their prime, is a joy. In any given scene, you can actually see them inspiring each other: they plumb every inch of the material to get the maximum fireworks. They all have confidence that the small moments are the big moments in a piece like this, and they find subtle, funny communications behind each others’ backs. The performances are both naturalistic and stylized, with all three in perfectly matched pitch together.
Spacek finds a zany grace that carries the most absurdist scenes (she was the film’s Oscar nominee, along with supporting actress Tess Harper and Henley's screenplay), and Lange brings much-needed tangy bite and anger to the film. Both actresses are superb, as always, but Keaton is the glue. Lenny has so much invested in her sisters, and less of a life outside of them, and she plays the moments when they come together with shameless bliss. Keaton alights when the sisters are in harmony: her love for Meg and Babe is transcendent, and you feel it bleeds over into Keaton’s love for Lange and Spacek. The final image, of all three actresses holding oversized chunks of birthday cake and hysterically laughing, remains pure magic.
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Reader Comments (20)
I always viewed Lange as the strongest of the three,Harper is hilarious,Keaton i am sorry to say was grating for the most part and Spacek better that year in Night Mother.
Lange doing her weird Lange thing here.
I don't think I've ever *gotten* her as an actress. Keaton and Spacek are so gamely selling the black comedic farce in this movie and Lange has this distant, indifferent quality about her performance.
Spacek is by far the highlight—such a well deserved nomination.
Agree that Lange is a mannered weirdo. She only seemed human in Tootsie, which thankfully is one of her smallest roles.
I love this movie! Spacek was the highlight for me. The climactic scene towards the end of the movie (ie., botched suicide) was both hysterical and heartbreaking.
I was obsessed with the other poster, the pink one. It was the cover of the novel based on the play. I read it twice before watching the movie!
This was like an actressexual wet dream come true with 3 of the best actresses (in their prime)together in one movie. I beg to differ though - I think Keaton was the weakest link. She was not only annoying (line reading, farce, etc) but more mannered than the other two. Spacek was the MVP in my opinion. But has anyone watched the latest season of Bloodline? Spacek has degenerated to the point when you can't even hear her well when she's breaking down or rendering a quiet monologue. What happened to her?
Spacek won the NY film critics n Golden Globes n she wld've won her 2nd Oscar had the Academy not fall for an Oscar Baity role.
IMHO, Marlee Matlin had won based more on her disability rather than on her acting skill. The Academy wanna break new ground that yr by showin tt they are inclusive o actors who are disabled.
"Lange has this distant, indifferent quality about her performance."
Lange admitted in a Charlie Rose interview that she was sometimes indifferent about the roles she played in her earlier career--and she knows her work suffered for it.
She has more misfires in her filmography than some of her contemporaries, but when she's on her game (Frances!), I think she's electrifying.
Agree that Spacek was the highlight of Crimes of the Heart; next is Tess Harper's solid Chick Boyle. It has been years since I saw this film but I don't remember much of Keaton in the film. I remember Lange's Meg although I thought then that she did not quite come off as authentic to the idiom of the film --must rewatch this film and see it with fresh new eyes. But Spacek was the MVP, even making the suicide attempt both touching and oddly funny.
I love this blog's constant petty take down of Jessica Lange at every chance. Meryl Streep fans are so bizarre and sad.
What on earth does the latter have to do with the former?
I only remembered this film via a clip but now recall Spacek was the best, and no I don't hate Jennifer Lange.
Norman—I wouldn't describe myself as a predisposed Meryl Streep fan. When Meryl really earns my love she gets it but often she doesn't get all the way there. I'm not keen on her body of work post-2006, for example.
That said, you don't need to be the most decorated film actress in history to act circles around Jessica Lange. Plenty of undecorated actresses can, too. ;)
Definitely Spacek, just go watch the scene when she's busy making popcorn while got caught between Keaton and Lange's fight, pure genius, so effortless yet so comically brilliant! She really should have more than just one oscar. ( Carrie & In the Bedroom, as well as this underrated gem).
It's amazing that Spacek got the nomination at all. Today, she'd be "the one who goes supporting."
It's funny to read these comments. I actually remember really loving Jessica Lange in this particular role (even though I'm a known "petty hater" of her work or something). It was one of the first times I noticed an actor changing the register of their voice based on which other character they were talking to... the way people in real life do.
Mike -- and on a related note: at the Tony Awards the same two characters received acting nominations (Spacek and Harper's roles) but both were deemed "Featured" aka Supporting so I think you're right.
But I love Spacek is in this movie most "I was having a bad day"
Great text
Hayden, there really is nobody on earth who can act circles around Jessica Lange. That is patently false. She is one of the greatest actors. Last year the woman won a Tony for a four-hour emotionally grueling classic role. That most assuredly is not someone who people act circles around.
Last year the woman won a Tony for a Ryan Murphy-produced, four-hour emotionally grueling classic role.
fixed it for you
Well, I'd take ten minutes over Patricia Clarkson over four hours of Jessica Lange, which sounds like a lot of work.