The Criminal

The well-worn theme of an innocent man wrongly accused of murder gets another working over in this convoluted British thriller. After musician Jasper (Steven Mackintosh) strikes up a conversation with a lovely blond in a local pub, the pair head back to his flat for a one-night stand, which is derailed when a man breaks into the apartment and kills the woman--or at least that's what Jasper tells an obnoxious police inspector (Bernard Hill), who thinks Jasper might well have been the person who slit her throat. Nothing is quite as it seems in a plot full of suspicious characters and noirish atmosphere, but short on plausible storytelling. Very optional. (T. Rich)