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Crimes of the Heart

Crimes of the Heart

Comedy · Drama · 1986

Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.

Movie details

Crimes of the Heart

“Meg just left one. Lenny never had one. Babe just shot one. The MaGrath sisters sure have a way with men.”

1986 Comedy · Drama 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.3 / 10

4.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

82 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

58 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Crimes of the Heart?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Bruce Beresford

Written by

Beth Henley

Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton

Lenny Magrath

Jessica Lange

Jessica Lange

Meg Magrath

Sissy Spacek

Sissy Spacek

Babe Magrath

Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard

Doc Porter

Tess Harper

Tess Harper

Chick Boyle

David Carpenter

David Carpenter

Barnette Lloyd

Hurd Hatfield

Hurd Hatfield

Old Granddaddy

Court is in session

Put Crimes of the Heart on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.