Review of The Crimes That Bind

This could have been a classic melodrama straight out of the ark :it is not ,the treatment is not derivative and although one may guess the ending before the final revelation , the construction of the movie is rather subtle ,using two distinct plots with two accused persons (a man and a woman) :it's thirty minutes before both stories are linked with Ignacio 's testimony in Gladys affair and one learns that he and his wife are concerned by both .In these trials , for once, they do not show the brilliant lawyers but leaves the lion's share to the accused ,both well acted :butter would not melt in Daniel 's mouth and Gladys seems out of this world .What the bourgeois mother (excellent Cecilia Roth) plots with the shady lawyer backfires on her .

Based on a true story , it avoids tear-jerker tricks ,much to the credit to this Argentine movie.