Last year when Keanu Reeves and the rest of the cast was here in Buffalo shooting Henry's Crime, there was a great deal of civic pride that some film company and a major star had found Buffalo praiseworthy enough to shoot a motion picture here. Certain Buffalo landmarks were quite recognizable on Main Street and I'm convinced that the use of the famous Shea's Theater was the main reason for the shoot. A great deal of the film is shot inside there because a production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard is integral to the plot.
There are two crimes in Henry's Crime. The first is the one Keanu Reeves got left holding the bag for when he drove some friends to what was an ATM stop and it turned out to be a bank robbery on Buffalo's Main Street. After doing the time and spending it there with a wise old convict played by James Caan, Reeves decides that maybe the state owes him one bank robbery.
In the meantime Reeves gets a romance going with actress Vera Famiga who tells her director he's a natural to play in their stock company production of The Cherry Orchard. That works out real well because from Shea's Theater there is an old tunnel that runs across the street to the Buffalo Savings Bank which actually is one block down. The tunnel was from Prohibition days and it's a long tunnel.
Reeves's two friends from the first robbery who suckered him Fisher Stevens and Danny Hoch cut themselves in as well as Bill Duke the security guard who nailed Reeves the first time also cut themselves in. You have to see the film for the rest.
Henry's Crime for me has its moments. Reeves is a confusing mixture of dis-ingenuousness and innocence in his character. James Caan as the worldly wise convict steals the film for me. But I wound up asking myself what have I just seen when I finished the film.
By the way on Main Street in Buffalo there is no automobile traffic save for police and emergency vehicles and mail and UPS trucks. What he was driving there for would have been picked up immediately by any resident of this city.
But we're all not from Buffalo.
There are two crimes in Henry's Crime. The first is the one Keanu Reeves got left holding the bag for when he drove some friends to what was an ATM stop and it turned out to be a bank robbery on Buffalo's Main Street. After doing the time and spending it there with a wise old convict played by James Caan, Reeves decides that maybe the state owes him one bank robbery.
In the meantime Reeves gets a romance going with actress Vera Famiga who tells her director he's a natural to play in their stock company production of The Cherry Orchard. That works out real well because from Shea's Theater there is an old tunnel that runs across the street to the Buffalo Savings Bank which actually is one block down. The tunnel was from Prohibition days and it's a long tunnel.
Reeves's two friends from the first robbery who suckered him Fisher Stevens and Danny Hoch cut themselves in as well as Bill Duke the security guard who nailed Reeves the first time also cut themselves in. You have to see the film for the rest.
Henry's Crime for me has its moments. Reeves is a confusing mixture of dis-ingenuousness and innocence in his character. James Caan as the worldly wise convict steals the film for me. But I wound up asking myself what have I just seen when I finished the film.
By the way on Main Street in Buffalo there is no automobile traffic save for police and emergency vehicles and mail and UPS trucks. What he was driving there for would have been picked up immediately by any resident of this city.
But we're all not from Buffalo.