Henry's Crime

Henry Torne is a toll-booth worker in Buffalo who drifts through life without much ambition. When a shady acquaintance asks him to wait outside a bank, Henry is caught up in a robbery he did not commit and is sent to prison for three years. Inside, he befriends Max Saltzman, an older con man who pushes him to stop accepting his lot. After his release, Henry decides to rob the very bank he was jailed for, and Max joins him. Their plan involves an old tunnel running from a nearby theatre into the bank's vault area, and to work on it without suspicion the two men take jobs with the theatre company staging a play. Henry also falls for Julie, the production's leading actress, which complicates the scheme.

Malcolm Venville directed the film, which came between 44 Inch Chest and Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition in his directing credits. Sacha Gervasi and David N. White wrote the screenplay. Keanu Reeves plays Henry, with Vera Farmiga as Julie, James Caan as Max, Judy Greer as Debbie, Fisher Stevens as Eddie Vibes and Danny Hoch as Joe, among 34 credited cast members. Made for a modest budget, the film drew middling numbers: on IMDb it holds 5.9/10 from around 22,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.8/10 from 396 votes. A critics' rating of 5/10 from 54 reviews sits close to those audience scores, with neither group rating it highly.