Crime and Punishment

Sweaty self-abasement is de rigueur for any adaptation of this philosophical classic, and, as the fleetingly homicidal Raskolnikov, Dempsey dishes it out — mercifully — in tablespoons, not quarts. Julie Delpy's virtuous streetwalker and Kingsley's serene inspector are also rendered with masterful understatement, especially for a TV movie. But the guilt-induced, Afterschool Special fantasies (used in lieu of Dostoyevsky's fever-dream dialectics) are simply beyond redemption. B-