Movie Review: 'Imaginary Crimes' (1994)

Ray Weiler (Harvey Keitel), a widower with two daughters, is the daddy as dysfunctional teddy bear: He's a boozer and con artist who's always nattering on about his latest get-rich-quick scheme-yet we're cued to see in every scene that he cares. Keitel's performance never gels; he's too busy leaping from sweetness to tyrannical stubbornness to give us a glimpse of Ray's heart. More impressive is Fairuza Balk as the teenage Sonya, who has begun to figure out what a flake her father is. Balk, her wary intelligence shining through piercing gray-blue eyes, has a sensual melancholy that evokes the young Judy Garland. Too bad the sketchy, dawdling script turns her into a passive reactor. C-