The Warren family is introduced as pleasant and fairly cool - and then without a bit of irony or dissent from other family members, the father Edward makes a ritual toast to Tom's 11th hour abandonment of college, "Pulling defeat from the jaws of victory." The movie becomes a chain of disappointments large and small, all of which lead back to the 'original sin' of the father. Some offspring can't forgive him and others prefer to ignore the problem and turn their disenchantment inward. The wife keeps saying that the solution is to throw the troublemaking Charley out of the house, when she's actually in denial of the seriousness of the situation. Everybody loves each other and the family is harmonious in almost every way - but there's something rotten in the stew.

The best thing about Crooked Hearts is the cast. Vincent D'Onofrio and Noah Wylie have gone on to bigger careers (Wyle happens to be rather hot at the moment, I believe) while other are mostly treading water. Juliette Lewis is certainly big news from Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers, and Peter Berg was in Collateral a couple of years back. They blend well in a script that tries but doesn't avoid seeming too calculated. Charley makes an honest attempt to leave home like he knows he should, but it doesn't work when an odd coincidence forces him to come back. Sexual betrayals tend to criss-cross family lines -- Tom crashed out of Berkeley because his girlfriend Eileen (Wendy Gazelle) got pregnant and married someone else, but the real father of the baby is closer to home.

Discussing any of the main twists in the story would be a bad spoiler, so I'll tread lightly. Crooked Hearts goes in a great direction when we think it begins to steer a theraputic course. Good guy main character Tom starts going out with Marriett, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, adding yet another eccentric characterization to her résumé. Marriet has herself come home from a disastrous attempt to start-up in Los Angeles, and as an emotionally wounded bird fits in perfectly with the angst-ridden Warren household.

Making a big impression in an opening flashback is the wonderful Marg Helgenberger. Her character throws the film off-balance because we keep expecting her to return.

Sony / MGM's Crooked Hearts looks great on DVD with an enhanced transfer that flatters Tak Fujimoto's rich cinematography. The picture is pleasing even when the characters emote in featureless unfurnished apartments. A clear audio track highlights the lively choice of source music cues, which fortunately do not get out of hand as they did with Orion's Mermaids of the same year. That potentially good movie was ruined by star egos and too many pop songs crammed into the post-production; Crooked Hearts is a tiny movie that got ignored because MGM was in transition between owners ... sort of where it is right now. Free Leo!

There are no extras, not even Josh Stallings' excellent trailer.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Crooked Hearts rates:
Movie: Very Good
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: Crooked Nothing
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: Crooked December 7th, 2005