With Crazy Love, documentarian Dan Klores proves that 'œtruth trumps fiction for whacked'“out depravity,' said Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. It recounts the long relationship between Burt Pugach and Linda Riss, who met in a Bronx, N.Y., park back in the 1950s. He was a married lawyer with flashy tastes, she a young virgin with Hollywood good looks. After years spent hoping that her beau would divorce his wife, Riss became engaged to another man. A furious Pugach hired thugs to knock on Riss' door and to throw lye in her face'”the beautiful Riss was disfigured and blinded. Then things really got crazy, said S. James Snyder in The New York Sun. Pugach spent 14 years locked up for his crime, writing love letters to Riss the entire time. When he got out of prison, Pugach proposed to Riss in front of local TV cameras. She said yes. That's quite a story, but Crazy Love's plodding narrative 'œlacks the punch that a story this unique and bizarre'”not to mention perverse and uplifting'”deserves.' It also lacks perspective, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Burt is a narcissistic abuser, Linda his cowed victim. But Klores 'œtends to play their story for laughs' when he ought to treat it as a sickening tale of victimhood and cruelty.
Rating: PG'“13
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