Fridae

Henry’s Crime is a heist caper about a man who, after serving a sentence for a crime he didn’t commit, decides that he might as well do it for real. As the long-term inmate played by James Caan tells his hapless cellmate, “If you did the time, you might as well do the crime”.

The stunt casting here comes courtesy of Keanu Reeves, who utilises his non-acting acting skills to portray an unambitious, amiable, nowhere man who not only gets tricked into becoming the getaway driver for a bank heist he knew nothing about, but is content to do the time because he doesn’t really want to start a family with his increasingly persistent wife.

Just because it’s Keanu Reeves with his lack of facial expression playing a dope of a character, you’re more likely to believe (and be equally amused) that he’d buy James Caan’s line and actually go rob a bank. Or that the plan would involve spending weeks to excavate a Prohibition-era tunnel from a playhouse to the bank. Or that Caan and Reeves will go undercover, respectively, as a stagehand and lead actor in a badly-staged Anton Chekov play to dig previously mentioned tunnel. Or that the famously underacting Reeves will end up wooing the very horrible lead actress (played by Vera Farmiga, clearly having too much fun with her role) who finds his acting so natural and earnest in its low-key approach. Or that the heist would take place, against all chance and probability, on opening night.

My suspicion is the scriptwriters told their producer (who happened to be Reeves) that they had an idea for an old-fashioned heist film that probably wouldn’t work nowadays if played straight, but would be automatically 1000% more funny and comic just because the mastermind and point man of the heist is Keanu Reeves playing Keanu Reeves. Imagine what fun you’d have watching a deadpan Reeves being forced to act and emote in a stage play by a tyrannical Russian director, or being hailed as a natural actor when he’s really hamming it up in our ears.

Henry’s Crime is a niche film for those with very peculiar tastes, though you can take it as a heist caper with a typical indie sense of humour.