Movie · 2007 · Crime, Drama, Horror · 1h 37m · R · English
Curator score: 1.7/10 (40.4K ratings)
The true story of a child's punishment that became a woman's crime.
Overview
The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.7/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 40%
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Tommy O'Haver
Production
First Look International, Killer Films, John Wells Productions
Cast
Elliot Page, Catherine Keener, Hayley McFarland, Nick Searcy, Romy Rosemont, Ari Graynor, Scout Taylor-Compton, Tristan Jarred, Hannah Leigh, Bradley Whitford, James Franco, Scott Eastwood, Michael O'Keefe, Carlie Westerman, Michelle Benes, Jeremy Sumpter, Brian Geraghty, Channing Nichols, Michael Welch, Evan Peters
Where to watch
fuboTV
Curator Review
Verdict
A grim, upsetting true-crime drama anchored by strong performances, but its reputation is damaged by accusations of softening and distorting the real case. It works more as a bleak abuse story than as a fully satisfying or trustworthy dramatization.
Best for
viewers interested in true-crime dramas about domestic abuse
fans of severe, emotionally punishing films
people drawn to restrained, performance-led indie dramas
Skip if
you want strict factual accuracy in a true-story adaptation
you are sensitive to prolonged abuse and cruelty
you prefer horror films with more style, momentum, or catharsis
Overview
An American Crime is one of those films that is hard to separate from the real-life horror behind it. The material is devastating, and the movie does capture a suffocating atmosphere of neglect, complicity, and escalating abuse inside a supposedly ordinary home. Catherine Keener gives the film a cold, unnerving center, and Elliot Page brings real vulnerability to the victimized teenager at the story’s core.
Worth noting
At the same time, the film has long been criticized for sanding down the brutality and reshaping key details in ways that feel ethically fraught for a true-crime drama. That tension hangs over every scene. Instead of feeling like a definitive account, it plays as a compromised dramatization: serious, upsetting, and watchable, but also frustratingly cautious.
Bottom line
If you approach it as a bleak abuse narrative rather than a faithful reconstruction, it has power. But for many viewers, the sense that the film is both exploitative and incomplete will outweigh its strengths. It is effective in flashes, yet difficult to recommend without reservation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
J. K. (0.5★) · 772 likes
First of all: Pardon my language, but I fucking hate this film. The fact that someone decided it was a good idea to make a bad movie out of one of the most heinous acts of abuse in American history, then trivialize it by not telling the story accurately; all while attempting to humanize her abusers as if they misunderstood their actions, is completely fucking offensive. Some jaded Hollywood studio executives exploited this poor girl's story to make money, or… more First of all: Pardon my language, but I fucking hate this film. The fact that someone decided it was a good idea to make a bad movie out of one of the most heinous acts of abuse in American history, then trivialize it by not telling the story accurately; all while attempting to humanize her abusers as if they misunderstood their actions, is completely fucking offensive. Some jaded Hollywood studio executives exploited this poor girl's story to make money, or… more
aalyxx (1★) · 579 likes
they1. tried to romanticize the boy who mutilated her2. minimized events that irl were much more brutal3. gave little depth to children who also brutally tortured her
I hate when true-crime movies do this. if you're going to make a true-crime movie, do it like "Der Goldene Handschuh" did, not like this one.
anyways, stan elliot page.
Ross Catrow (3.5★) · 471 likes
I need to start a list on Letterboxd called "Reasons to give up on living."
ayşe (1★) · 299 likes
this film omits details from the actual story to the point where you actually start to feel sorry for gertrude and the whole baniszewski family. this woman force fed sylvia her infants son's faeces and forced her to insert a glass coke bottle up her vagina but it's okay because she did it to 'protect her family'. nah.
Hunter ᴴᴰ (2★) · 274 likes
Fuck everyone in this movie!!!!!!
Fuck you Catherine KeenerFuck the kidsFuck the neighbors Fuck the parentsFuck James FrancoFuck Evan Peters
Scott Eastwood you can stay.
One of those movies that comes on autoplay after you finish another movie that you say you're gonna change but you keep watching because you're shocked and have to watch just a little more then you'll turn it off but then you’re to the end credits. Oh just me...
2011 · Drama, Thriller · 1h 53m · R · Curator 6.8/10 (710.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Philo, MUBI, OVID, Cineverse, Midnight Pulp, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A cold, distressing study of parental dread, guilt, and the limits of understanding violent behavior.