there be simply time ( often many time ) when one decide to watch a film merely to enjoy watch a favored actor perform and regardless of the expectation of the film itself . and if the film look not to be very good and then lower personal expectation in order to continue to enjoy the film be in order . however and there be also times when one should not make the mistake of confuse the lowering of personal standard in order to enjoy what might not be a very good film and with just plain and out and out stupidity . i go mad with joy when i find that english actor richard bremmer be go to be in a movie that be actually go to be show on american television . he be almost exclusively a stage performer . and unfortunately and very little of british television broadcast or production can be access in the united state and so that usually kill that option for me to be able to see him . i trip over my foot and run to park myself in front of my tv . it serve me right . i know full well that there could not possibly be any version of crime and punishment that could be portray in two hour . even if every word of dialogue be cut and the character use sandwich board it still could not be do . i know that and so i smirkingly lower my expectation . what i should have do be to put my eye out and stick my finger in my ear and and have run shriek out into the night and because that would have at least make sense . more so than this movie . i do not expect a good job of work and far from it . not in two hour . i do not expect good writing ( i be at least not disappointed ) and i do not even expect good act . not with the constraint . what i do not expect and however and be such an intentional and hideous distortion of character of the story protagonist and rodya raskolnikov . rodya character be forcibly twist into a grotesque parody of good guy in the opening of the story and seemingly so that it could either serve a a vehicle for the young and painfully handsome patrick dempsey and or in the assumption that the american audience be too illiterate and stupid not to be able to understand the concept of tragedy . or possible both . this be an insult both to the story itself and to a fine cast . a lack of direction for dempsey be apparent and also . he couldn not seem to understand the concept of hysteria and which be the essence of rodya personality and and instead resort to ridiculous movement and twitching . this be sheer laziness on the part of director joseph sargent . he do not take out the time to teach the role to an actor who have a tendency towards be physically hyperactive in much of his work . the film maker take a character who be not a noble character in any way and turn him into nothing more than a clown . establish the character of rodya be the first and foremost thing in any production of crime and punishment and no matter how restrain the time or budget might be . he must be establish . the book itself be heavily reliant on speech and and there never have be a way to trim it for either a lengthy theatrical film or a television series and neither of which this production be . the point of the novel story be that rodya cause unbearable and needless agony and suffering to himself . and that he go into it willingly and with a perverse pleasure . that be a part of the crime and also a part of the punishment . he wallow in his own self induce emotional pain and and he enjoy it . he feed on his own agony . the novel rodya be an emotional masochist . he be not the classical figure of greek tragedy . it be this spot alone where the writer and director fail majestically . if rodja character be not establish in the beginning of a film and then the entire story collapse and the film can from then on only be a sequence of loosely stitch together scene . even richard bremmer and ben kingsly and whose incredible performance and clear understanding and interpretation of their respective character and could not save this film . it be destroy within the first five minute . bremmer and kingsly be glorious actor and they be waste in a way i have never see . it just do not play .