Film Review - The Crime is Mine

Images courtesy of Tracey Mair Publicity.

François Ozon has returned to transforming olden day plays into witty satirical modern films a la his award-winning 2002 film 8 femmes. The Crime Is Mine or Mon Crime, if you prefer the original French title (which literally translates to ‘My Crime’ thank you VCE French), is based upon the 1934 play Mon Crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, in which a young woman is murdered in the studio of an artist, making him the prime suspect. However, unlike the original play, in this case it is an aspiring young actress (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) who is accused of murdering her predatory producer, and the acquittal that changes her life. This is the third adaptation of Mon Crime, with two English-speaking adaptations over the years, the 1937 True Confession and the 1946 Cross my Heart, both of which also feature young women accused of murdering disgusting men in power. It’s almost like Hollywood was aware of something. 

I know this sounds bleak so far, given the current reality of the world we live in; where powerful men exploit their positions to sexually harass people who had previously trusted them. Or men who expect a little ‘something’ for doing you a favour because god forbid they do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. But by being the first adaptation of Mon Crime in a post ‘Me Too’ world Ozon had to tread carefully. Use the wrong type of humour and you risk mocking a very dark reality, but failing to make a self-proclaimed comedy film ‘funny’ and you will get incels 4chan-ing about the decline of comedy in a ‘woke’ world. Because let me assure you, this film manages to navigate this delicate balance quite well, its success rooted in the fact that it does not take itself seriously. At all. All whilst still showing respect to serious topics. The social commentary is dry and vaudevillian in nature, most evident by the occasional overly dramatic black-and-white scenes reminiscent of Golden Age detective films in storytelling sequences.

Tereszkiewicz gives a commanding performance as the ‘wrongly’ accused Madeleine, a penniless actress of questionable talent but with immense ambitions who does not hesitate in her deceptive games. Opposite her is Rebecca Marder as her best friend and defender Pauline, a queer-coded lawyer who has not been given a chance to demonstrate her skills before now. But it is Odette, played by the seasoned Isabelle Huppert, that steals the show for the few scenes in which she appears, as a has-been silent film actress desperate to take some of Madeleine’s post-acquittal success. With her creative hair pieces, eccentric intonation, and overall Moira Rose-coded energy, it’s at her arrival that the film gives up any semblance of a detective film and transforms into an all-out screwball comedy that will leave you chuckling at the verbal sparring. 

So if you like the French, the death of sex offenders, black-and-white throwback scenes, and subtle manipulation then Mon Crime is the film for you. 

3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Crime is Mine is screening in cinemas now.