With its imminent premiere at Toronto next month, new images have been unveiled as the first look at Malcolm Venville’s “Henry’s Crime” based on a script by “Anvil! The Story Of Anvil” director Sacha Gervasi.
The film stars Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga (both pictured here) and James Caan in what we described as “a zany sounding rom-com with literary allusions, crime drama shades and a protagonist confronting the same major life-altering issues [as in ‘Anvil!’]” Reeves, in fact, boarded the project early in its conception and became an outspoken supporter of Gervasi’s doc having seen it unfold in the editing room.
“It’s a twisted romantic comedy, very dark and funny and Keanu is the lead,” Gervasi explained to The Playlist last year, “[he] plays a Buffalo toll both attendant in the middle of an existential crisis.” The writer went on to discuss the film’s heist elements and a famous and tragic work by Russian playwright Anton Chekov that’s part of the whole deal. Here’s the full synopsis:
After serving three years in prison for a bank robbery he did not commit, an amiable but aimless man decides to rob the bank for real. His plan involves infiltrating a local theatre company, but his scheme gets complicated when he falls for the company’s lead actress. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Fisher Stevens, Peter Stormare, Danny Hoch and Bill Duke.
No word of a distribution deal for the feature, with its festival appearance here likely aiming to rectify that. Venville directed last year’s crime film, “44 Inch Chest” starring Ray Winstone. [TIFF]