sheela_na_gigs Review of Crimes of the Heart

Crimes of the Heart (1986)

as sane as anyone walkin the streets of hazelhurst MS

[10/10 · 13 May 2005]

i LOVE COTH. i know some of Henley's relatives & as hilarious as this movie (and play) are, the characters are true-to-life Southern eccentrics. living out of MS when i saw the play and the movie, i felt right at home. maybe one has to be US Southern to really understand the wackiness and schizophrenia of this part of the country. Henley writes about her own life and relatives and people of her community. Just as Slingblade is not so much movie as documentary, COTH is a memoir. When my mother watched Slingblade with me, she said, "Isnt this supposed to be 'film?" Didn't Mr Thornton win some award? Hell, he just went home to a family reunion and set up a video camera and let it roll. You know all those people; my God, we're kin to half of 'em." So it is with Henley's marvelous memoir, when eccentrics "are just as sane as anyone else walking down the streets of Hazlehurst MS."