Average Rating: 4/10
Reviews Counted: 13
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 2
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 10,165
The true story of a young girl held captive by her insane caretaker comes to life in this disturbing film from Ella Enchanted director Tommy O'Haver. Hard Candy's Ellen Page stars as Sylvia Likens a teenager who, along with her sister, is left to live temporarily with seemigly-mild-mannered housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, played by Catherine Keener. Unfortunately for Sylvia, Gertrude soon snaps and holds her hostage in harsh conditions until the former's eventual death. Bradley Whitford costars
Aug 17, 2007 Wide
Aug 19, 2008
First Look Studios
All Critics (13) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (11) | DVD (2)
Tragic tale of child abuse fails to make any sense of the crime.
Not even the considerable talents of lead thesps Catherine Keener and Ellen Page can alleviate the artistic nullity that is An American Crime.
By instead focusing more on the character of Gertrude Baniszewski, the film relegates Sylvia Likens to a cypher with no real identity - she's simply a vessel for abuse.
Um projeto que encara a desgraça alheia como mero trampolim para o entretenimento.
Among the most morally bankrupt films of the decade--a true crime of American cinema.
If Eli Roth were to direct a Lifetime movie, it might look something like An American Crime.
i katalytika akadimaiki eksistorisi toy, poy problimatizei me tin idiazoysa sadistiki tis hroia stin parathesi sokaristikon skinon bias dihos peraitero diereynisi toys, afinei to myalo soy na kykloforei kai na kanei syndeseis mono toy, me ton idio tropo p
Gut wrenching performances, a well structured narrative, and a great cast makes "An American Crime" one of the finer movies to depict one of the most gruesome travesties of the twentieth century...
A misfire and the most problematic film at Sundance, this fact-based tale of child abuse is disturbing, appalling, and voyeuristic due to poor conception and execution by writer-director O'Haver who ironically has been wanting to make it for 20 years.
What purpose does this film serve? I have watched it, and I have contemplated it, and I can come up with no good reason for it to exist.
(Catherine) Keener, always a versatile actress, takes on the challenge of portraying perhaps one of the most unlikable villains in the history of true crime, and tries to find the humanity buried somewhere within her.
The real high point of this film is Catherine Keener's captivating performance in the role of the troubled and possessive Gertie, vacillating between disturbingly abusive and imploringly sympathetic the way only a truly manipulative psychopath really can.
Based on a true story from the 1960s this film tells the tragic tale of a young girl being tortured and held captive by a family for a months. Setting the court hearings as the frame for the reconstruction of the terrible events the film does never show the cruel details of young Sylvia's misery, which doesn't lessen
August 28, 2008Super Reviewer
Being always curious to watch movies based on true story, it was but obvious that I was compelled to watch this movie. I read a part of the plot and then decided to go for it to know what happened to that girl (Sylvia Likens), why she suffered, how much and how long. Of course, this wasn't a documentary, so I didn't
October 5, 2009Super Reviewer
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