Deep Crimson

Based on the true story of the 1951 "Lonely Hearts Murders," involving Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez (which also inspired the 1970 film The Honeymoon Killers), Mexican director Arturo Ripstein's Deep Crimson pairs Nicolas Estrella (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), a toupee-wearing, small-time grifter who seduces and steals from lonely women he meets through personal ads, and target-turned-accomplice Coral (Regina Orozco), an overweight, lazy wack job who abandons her children to join forces with her lover. As the pair move from mark to mark, Coral's explosive jealousy emboldens her to take increasingly greater part in the shakedowns, to the point where she eventually starts killing the women who have enjoyed her Nico's benign caresses. Set in 1940s rural Mexico, this nicely shot, well acted, sometimes low-key/sometimes over the top noir thriller takes, in my opinion, way too long to set up. Nico and Coral are neither a particularly fun, nor--more importantly--terribly interesting couple to watch, and I found myself impatiently tapping my foot, waiting for--to paraphrase A Clockwork Orange's Alex--the "red, red krovvy to flow." I'm not proud of that mind you, but if you're going to advertise a film as one that can "make blood stir and flesh creep" (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune), then by george, you better not waste the first 3/4ths of the movie piddling around with soap-opera level romance. Optional. (R. Pitman)[DVD Review--March 22, 2005--Home Vision, 114 min., in Spanish w/English subtitles, not rated, $19.95--Making its debut on DVD, 1996's Deep Crimson is presented with a good widescreen transfer and solid stereo sound, but no extras other than a trailer and an essay by film scholar Jorge Ruffinelli. Bottom line: this is still an optional purchase for larger foreign collections.]