Why did I rent this movie? What review did I read that gave me the impression that it would be good to watch? Why are Ellen Page, Catherine Keener, James Franco and Bradley Whitford in this terrible film?
"An American Crime", based on a real crime committed in 1965, follows Sylvia
(Ellen Page) and her slightly disabled sister, who has a leg brace from her bout of polio. Their parents leave the two with a single mother from their poor, small-town church for a short time while working a carnival circuit in Florida. The single mother, Gertie (Catherine Keener), is a mess. She has regular bouts of mental illness, and struggles to raise her 5 girls and one boy. Her mooch boyfriend (James Franco), who fathered her most recently born child who screams and cries throughout the film, is too young for her and instead of paying child support, scams what little money she has.
Into this crap situation, the two girls befriend the sisters and it seems that the story will focus on the elder sister, Paula, and her pregnancy with a child from her affair with a married bagboy from the local liquor store. But no. The two girls' check from their father is late and so Gertie whips the girls with a belt. What? The girls take it and move on. When the bagboy attempts to rape Paula to get her to shove off, Sylvie saves her and tells the bagboy that Paula is pregnant. Paula is furious with Sylvie and to make matters worse, the creepy neighbor boy who follows Sylvie around overhears the secret and blabs it all over their high school. Paula assumes it was Sylvie and gets her in trouble at home.
From here it all spirals out of control and it's hard to understand how this family and the neighborhood kids who get involved could possibly think that any of this was ok let alone a good idea. Gertie accuses Sylvie of flirting with her crap boyfriend and the gossip at school gets back to Gertie who accuses her of being a slut and - get this - forces Sylvie to shove a coke bottle "up her".
After this Sylvie is thrown down the stairs into the basement. From this point on, Sylvie regains consciousness but never moves. Instead of getting her to a hospital, the family burns her with cigarettes and matches, punches her, kicks her, hoses her down with cold water, ties her up to a post and just generally tortures her. It isn't clear if she's paralyzed or just wasted away from neglect, but Sylvie is a limp whimpering ragdoll in their mean mitts. The little son is particularly cruel and invites/cajoles the neighborhood kids to join in on the fun. Finally after discovering Paula's pregnancy, Gertie brands a phrase into Sylvie's stomach. Yeah, you read that right. She brands, "I am a prostitute and proud of it" with the assistance of the creepy neighbor stalker boy who claims to like Sylvie! All of this is clearly exploitative but the film tries to make the characters rounded and its clear that the filmmaker wants to tell a more nuanced story about sexual repression and the cruelty of children. But this subject matter is so crazy that it'd be nearly impossible to avoid the titillation of the audience. So just make it a gothic, exploitation Lifetime miniseries and go for it. There's nothing wrong with that. But no.
So we suffer along with Gertie and Sylvie and I can't say that I stayed engaged after Sylvie was tossed down the stairs. It was too extraordinary.
And the film pushes the audience out of the story by framing it with the trial of Gertie and the testimony of the neighbor kids by the DA, played by Bradley Whitford, who I would watch read the ingredients of pudding pops. Yeah, I love him. The audience's horror at the acts is voiced by the DA asking the children why they did it and why they didn't get help. But it's just sad. The kids all reply, "I don't know". 
There's a side plot with a boy from school who is handsome and likes Sylvie, which leads to the bottle incident. And that along with the teen pregnancy leads me to believe that sexual repression and shame for having children is what leads Gertie to torture Sylvie, or that's what the director is aiming for. But I don't really find a subtle understanding of sadism. I never sympathized or comprehended with the driving force of Gertie and the kids and so it just seemed crazy. The material was there to make a connection between oppression and sadism, but it felt superficial.
The camera stays with Sylvie's perspective and so we don't get inside the madness. Catherine Keener is compelling in many respects, but plays it too subtly. The words show that she's coming to a boil and that she's projecting things onto Sylvie, but she's so restrained and pained as a character that it's hard to believe that the kids would go along with such a mild mannered woman. She's just not crazy enough to enjoy torturing a young girl in such a terrible manner. Yes, many people are responsible for this crime and yes, they might seem like nice and normal people. But someone who is at the center of such a heinous crime would show some signs of mental illness outside the normal realm of behavior. For example, in reality, Sylvie was often punished for being unclean. This obsession of someone being dirty is evidence of Gertie's madness. It would make her a more understandable character.
Then there's a ridiculous scene where Sylvie escapes. Paula and the creepy neighbor boy come to their senses and take her to her parents.
They return for the little sister and at this point the film re-enters the house where Sylvie is dead on the floor of the kitchen. I like this choice in that it follows the audience's natural desire for someone in the film to act with some sense and our desire for a happy and victorious ending. But these kind of fake-outs are always irritating. So in the end, Gertie gets life and eventually accepts responsibility and regret for Sylvie's death. The neighbor kids, Paula and the little son all get prison time too. And Sylvie's parents leave her sister with the DA's family and go back on the road. What?! What awful parents! I would think that they would be so ashamed of themselves for abandoning their daughters to such horrible people and handing Sylvie over to her murderer, that they would never let their remaining daughter out of their sights. I think there are other villains in this story beyond Gertie's family.
I just feel that there is more to this story than the sexual repression angle. Doesn't their poverty have something to do with this? What about group behavior makes kids succumb to peer pressure to do even the most horrible things? Why would sadistic behavior be satisfying? What the hell is wrong with Gertie?
I don't know who suggested this movie to me, but I will find them and tell them that they were wrong. This is not a good movie. It may be well acted, but it is poorly handled and not even melodramatic enough to be entertaining.
Ah ha! I've figured it out. The film was praised for its acting at Sundance last year.
